Blackdie
by Dr. Bross
Summary: After Metroid Fusion, the Federation has just lost contact with a facility producing a dangerous new substance. A substance known as Zonagen. Now Samus is hired to track the group down, before the Space Pirates or anyone else can find them first.
1. Chapter 1: Sand Trap

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 1: Sand Trap

"The Sand Trap. It's one squatty planet with nothing but miles and miles of black sand. Sand that kills. In every grain, every hand full, there are microorganisms carrying a whole menu of deadly diseases. Hell, half the crap they carry we haven't even heard of yet. One man was said to have grown a couple extra limbs before freezing up like a Popsicle when he tried to do a little sand surfing. Only the native sand snakes have hard enough scales to keep the organisms out, and they don't stop by the base often enough to be studied. Now, who in their right mind would want to finance a facility in a place like this? Why? Because there is money to be made, that's why.

"The little bastards found in that sand can also make some pretty useful material when mixed with the right stuff. The CX-912 substance known as 'Zon' is shipped to us every three days. Now keep in mind, one day out here lasts 84 hours on this planet. We're real far from the nearest sun, so don't get any ideas it's scorching hot on this rock. On the contrary, it's bloody cold. Anyway, then every five days we get the RT-90 substance known as 'Phasagen' that makes it so you can peel the hull off a capital ship. It's potent stuff, but it needs oxygen to do its thing.

"So, to continue our little chemistry lesson, after you mix Zon with the sand and Phasagen with the sand, you get substances 'A' and 'B', respectively. The Zon makes the organisms reproduce like there's no tomorrow, and the Phasagen kills off the organisms. When you add 'A' to 'B', you get one interesting show. The chemical juice given off by the dead organisms has a reaction with the juice given off by the living organisms and it mixes. When it's all said and done, you get the chemical cocktail, 'Zonagen'. I've heard from some experts that it's real close to Phazon on the atomic level. You know? The stuff that used to pop up on this far away planet... Never mind.

"Just incase you forgot; the name is Seb Tanner. Nice to meet you, even though we've never forgotten the Federation's favorite general. And if you know any of your friends that need a biological weapon that doubles as a power source, tell me, ok? Usually a bio-weapon pretty much does squat to robots and protective suits. But Zonagen is special; it carries a radiation that screws with anything using circuitry. This same radiation can also be processed for fuel; Carefully, I might add. We have barrels of it sitting around in secure containers just waiting for a buyer. I won't lie. Sometimes we cut some corners due to the budget squeezes. Too bad all the funding you diverted from our project went into a facility Samus Aran blew up.

"You still sore about that? Big deal, at least we're still around. Zonagen makes whatever crap the Space Pirates and Samus have look like Play Dough. Look at it this way, next time the Pirates try to dig into some planet or facility, you can release Zonagen and use whatever left over to run an entire city. It's useful for war and peace, and isn't that what you want? What is there to think about? You still there? Are you listening to me? Good, cause you always wanted a way to deal with the scum of the universe that didn't include running to Samus Aran with your tail in-between your legs. And you just got it." 

It was the third time Sebester Tanner had listened through his message. He began to like it more and more with every playback. With the volume turned up as far as it could go and the door to his office wide open, he was just praying someone would walk by and hear it. Acting as the general manager of the Sand Trap facility was cut and dry, nothing was popping anywhere. It went like clockwork, and Tanner could have never expected efficiency to be so boring.

A couple years ago, Sand Trap was the cutting edge. All the hallways could be sealed and cut off from the rest of the facility at a moments notice just incase a leak or security breech occurred. Even though important pipes could be seen running along the walls of the circular hallways... it was no easy feat to break them open, not to mention the countless backup systems in the works. The whole facility supported it's own environment and had to due to the sandstorms which could easily pump in tons of deadly black sand through older external ventilation shafts.

Tanner didn't quite look the part of a factory manager either. Any sort of regulation or dress code passed down by the Federation died a long time ago. Where he was usually required to wear a jumpsuit and nametag, was now reduced to some brown slacks, a white shirt, and a necktie that was hardly tied. Next on the list of his haphazard appearance was his hair, shooting off in who knows how many directions, as spiky as can be. Someone told him that his hair resembled a porcupine, even though he hardly knew what one was. A lot of Earth animals had died off ever since space had been conquered, a lot of animals colonists would never see except in text books and documentaries from ages ago.

"Seb? What are you doing?" A tall lady asked.

Someone had stuck her head into the room, as if getting a good look before entering.

"Come on in, I'm just reviewing my message to the Federation HQ."

He played a little bit, and successfully drew the woman into the room. She appeared much more professional than he did, with a red jumpsuit and nametag. This uniform was also complete with a helmet used for sanitary purposes; it hid every strand of hair on your head, making it look like a bowling ball without the holes.

"Jeez Tanner, you haven't even encoded it." The lady realized, looking over the properties of the message on the main screen.

"So?" He huffed. "Forget that, whadya think about it?"

"God, General Graves is going to tear your head off when he sees this. Why haven't you encoded the message yet? Anyone with a 21st century TV could intercept this."

She moved her hands toward the keyboard to go about the encoding procedures, but Tanner quickly slapped them away.

"Don't touch." He commanded her. "I want it this way."

"Have you gone nuts? If a two-bit criminal sees this... or the Space Pirates-"

"Tch. Space Pirates..." Tanner scoffed. "We could only be so lucky. How they gonna get in anyway? It's not like they're gonna land outside and cut a hole through a wall. The sand'll kill em' before they take five paces."

Now the woman was just staring at him. He stared back and stood up. From this view, it was easy to see his tall and lanky figure, and how the woman's figure was much more petite.

"Been freezin' our asses up here for five years. Years of work Victoria. You should know. You and your team have been breaking your backs since day one. What have we got to show for it? A warehouse full of crap no one is ever gonna use. That is, if we keep following protocol and sniffing the fumes of other projects put ahead of ours."

"This isn't a contest-"

Tanner snapped his fingers and cut her off instantly.

"I'm not asking for first place. All I'm asking for is some recognition. Ever since Samus Aran brought those damn parasites," He paused and made a motion with his hands. "The 'Metroids' to the Federation, we've been put on the backburner. And the way I see it, if we can't get recognition from the very people we're working for. Then I want to see it from someone else."

Those cold, hard eyes of Tanner's easily overpowered the deep and methodical eyes of Victoria and she could only look down toward the ground. It's hard to argue with the truth when it smacks you across the face with such brutality.

"Goddamn Samus Aran." Tanner huffed and walked over a corner of his office where an old table could be found. "She's a one-man Armageddon. Did you hear? They didn't want to invite her to the party celebrating the end of the Space Pirate episode cause they thought she'd blow the place to hell before the night was over with."

"Samus is a woman?"

Tanner's teeth dove into his lip. He wasn't supposed to disclose information like that. The Federation bigwigs had a thing about Samus. The more a mystery she was to the universe the better. Frankly, he was surprised that it wasn't public knowledge already with all the people she came in contact with. Mess up a bar here, blow up a gang hideout there, all in the name of bounty hunting. Safe to say, whenever she came to mind, Tanner felt like hitting someone.

"Go on, get outta here." He said after awhile.

"Not if you're going to send that message without encoding it. It's regulation to encode all outgoing messages concerning Project Blackdie."

He turned around and put his hands on his hips and just looked at her. Victoria didn't quite know what to do.

"You gonna take on an ex-Marine? Hope you get lucky or something?" Tanner gave a cruel laugh. "Go on, get outta here."

Eventually his cold stare chased her from the room. He took a deep breath and sat back down... that was the closest thing he got to excitement after hearing the B.S.L. Laboratory got turned into scrap metal. And just as he vowed, he sent the message in its most vulnerable form. With any luck, the Federation would send a platoon of Space Marines to relocate the facility within a week. Even if they didn't, he was sure someone would show up.

His mind soon drifted to the facts surrounding the B.S.L. disaster. Everyone who was anyone in the Federation knew that it was Samus's fault the station did a belly flop onto the SR-388 surface. They tried to hold her for investigations, but no one wanted to mess with the universe's foremost Space Pirate killer, and simply kept tabs on her as she went about her business. In the end, to Tanner's dismay, all they did was give Samus a slap on the wrists and fine her a couple million credits.

Tanner was breaking a stylus pen in his hands as he thought about how the rest of the story played out.

Samus Aran paid her fines on the same day they were brought to her. She was a top dollar bounty hunter, and probably had more money than she let on. It was easy for anyone to see whatever she fought for wasn't about the money after that.

"God damn broad." He muttered. "I haven't even met you and I already hate you."

A light on the main screen in his office flashed for awhile. A cargo freighter with a new shipment of Zon had arrived. Protocol said he would oversee the arrival of each appointed shipment. Needless to say, it was getting on his nerves. He grabbed a sand colored suit coat and started to stalk the halls. He had to take the elevator to the topmost floor where the spaceport was located. Course, he wasn't in any hurry, it took awhile for the room and the freighter to be decontaminated of all the sand it picked up on the way down to the surface.

The cargo elevator zipped him to the spaceport level, where several monitors displayed the level of contaminants in the landing bay. It was only 30%. Every year the process took longer and longer since the funds to maintain the system never came anymore. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the facility wasted away in the sand as well. In order to do that, it'd have to take some twenty plus personnel with it, all humans. 

Speaking of which, there were three who were hanging around the airlock having a smoke. Tanner knew them all because most everyone on base was ex-something from the military branch of the Galactic Federation.

"What are you losers doing away from the living quarters?" Tanner greeted them. "This freighter's got it's own crew and equipment for moving containers around."

An average sized man with a strange set of goggles pushed over his eyes spoke first. The white jumpsuit made it clear he was a technical expert of some sorts.

"Just thought we'd let them know there are still people in this sandcastle."

"You don't count as a person Scratch. Hope you haven't forgot that."

"Yeah." A big bald man laughed. "You're more like... one-and-a-half."

The bald man's only defining characteristic was his long black beard. It was a wonder how he kept it so clean in the line of work as the head of facility maintenance. Scratch gave a punch to his gut. The last man in front of the airlock shook from head to toe, thin and frail. He tried to avoid making eye contact with the others. His blue jumpsuit placed him in the environmental branch of the base, to predict sandstorms and other anomalies.

"The Worm Guy here to see the family out the window?" Tanner asked, pointing to the frail man.

"They're not... worms!" The frail man stuttered. "They're... fully-grown... serpents adapted... to.. resist... the black sand..."

"Hence, sandworms." Scratch persisted.

A blue light went on above the airlock. 95%, it'd open soon.

"What if I told you this would be the last shipment we'd ever get?" Tanner began.

It was at 96%.

"We'd ask why." The bald man responded.

"You need a reason to escape this crapshoot?"

97%, a hiss could be heard. The bald man shrugged.

"I suppose not. Still, just like when we were in the Galactic Army. We don't like being left in the dark."

Tanner took out an old pack of cigarettes and took one out to light up. All eyes were on him now, including the Worm Guy's.

"I'm thinking about relocating. Whatdya think guys? Maybe Big Blue? Or uh... L7? Grape Gardens?"

The men across from Tanner had a heartily laugh as the blue light turned yellow. 99%. But they all stopped once they realized their boss was serious about the moving part. All of them began to consider what the repercussions would be. The airlock door slowly opened up, swinging sideways.

"What do you think gentlemen? Stay here and get swept under the mat by the Federation?" He began to move through the open airlock to enter the landing bay. "Or we could find other's who appreciate our work."

Now Tanner was too far away to be heard or to be talked to. The group of men just shifted uncomfortably around the door, looking at each other.

"Damn, he's serious isn't he?" Scratch asked.

"Never seem him like this before. We better tell the others."

"I'm not."

"You're not?"

Scratch gave a hard stare.

"Suppose he's kidding and we go mouthing off getting the whole base in an uproar. We'll be cut from the project and locked away for sure. Assuming the Federation doesn't bury our asses for all the trouble."

"Hell, the Federation doesn't care about this place anymore. They got other stuff-"

"That's... what they... said about... the B.S.L." the Worm Guy interrupted. "See how they... turned out..."

Scratch and the bald man didn't know that, and soon began to shuffle off in different directions. The Worm Guy waited a couple more seconds and took a deep breath, then followed after Tanner to the landing bay.

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Job Offer


	2. Chapter 2: Job Offer

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 2: Job Offer

The space lanes around the starship Reverov were all clear as it slowly orbited the dismal gray mining planet, Argus. Casual observers to this class of starship always compared it a double-barreled shotgun. Attack fighters and transport ships always entered and exited from the two gaping launch bays on the front. A small tower containing the bridge was towards the back and could barely see out toward the front. It seemed to be patiently waiting for something, as it was clearly out of it's element away from a fleet or armada.

A force field kept the personnel and pilots from getting sucked out the front by any sort of depressurization as they worked on the attack fighters and systems. But as clean as it all looked, it was outdated, probably the last ship of it's kind serving under the Galactic Federation. The Federation Police had slowly begun to replace the Galactic Army. The Reverov was originally designed for frontal assaults on enemy vessels and wasn't too effective at the searching and weeding out that was required for fighting Space Pirates. Occasionally it would run into one of their frigates and give it hell, but cases like that were rare.

No, the only reason why it was still in use was because General Graves, one of the leaders of the Galactic Army used it as a personal ship of sorts. And everyone accepted it, because the Space Pirates would have more than loved it if any great leader of the Federation happened to have an unfortunate death while cruising the galaxy.

Two pilots on the deck had already begun a heated discussion about the mission they were currently on. Both of them had taken up position behind a large transport ship so their superiors couldn't catch them slacking off.

"Two hundred."

"Three."

"Whew." One pilot whistled. "You're pretty confident."

"Absolutely. I bet you three hundred, that Samus Aran is piloting a new ship."

"You're on. I hear Aran got attached to that computer given to him during the B.S.L. escapades. He wouldn't get rid of it so easily."

"Are you joking? Samus Aran and 'taking orders' do not belong in the same sentence. He probably already got a new craft-"

An alarm went off to break up their conversation. Someone was on approach, and all personnel needed to clear the docking bay for landing. From outside the ship, all the crew and pilots looked like ants scurrying toward doorways to get out of the way. A small sleek ship darted toward the open bay moving at a good clip. It was only when the ship was almost on top of the starship did it begin to slow down and retract the landing gear. One thing was for sure, it didn't waste any time landing and was down in a second.

To one pilot's dismay, it was the same ship Samus had been assigned to undertake the B.S.L. operation. The same purple ship with the long legs for landing gear and the green cockpit window. And just as fast as it had landed, the lone occupant had already exited the ship. Samus Aran, the legendary bounty hunter. The crew had already gone back out into the docking bay to resume their work. But all of them took at least one glance at the bounty hunter; it wasn't everyday you got to see someone like Samus.

She knew where she was going, and made her way toward one of the doors to the compartments deeper inside the ship. Her stride was the same stride that made her seem like she owned the place, full of confidence. But her suit had changed a bit since the last mission she took for the Federation. The Fusion Suit influence was still there, but the shape more or less resembled the old Varia Suit the SA-X had gotten comfortable with. The large shoulder pads were covered with the veins associated with Metroid nuclei.

In a ship such as the Reverov, there was no time for wandering around aimlessly and a large shuttle transported crew from the front of the ship to the back. Samus got on the small shuttle as if she had served on the ship her whole life. There was no sense of hesitation or awkwardness the crew shared. Many simply made quick glances and tried not to stare at the bounty hunter, fearing they would regret it later. When the shuttle reached the back of the ship where the bridge was found and let off it's passengers, Samus was off again wasting no time. In the sea of dark gray uniforms, she stood out like a sore thumb in her orange organic-armored suit.

A long walk to the bridge was further shortened by elevators, but when she reached her destination, two soldiers with rifles soon stopped her.

"Samus Aran?" One said.

There was a pause. The blue visor made it impossible to see her facial expressions at a distance. You had to be a couple inches from her helmet in order to see in, and no one got that close for any reason.

"Yes?" The bounty hunter responded, sounding annoyed.

"Come with us."

The two guards needlessly escorted Samus into the bridge where a good half of the wall was just a large view screen showing the planet and the space around them. An overwhelming amount of consoles circled the room just below the screen. Among the officers on the bridge, a man in a dark green overcoat, General Graves, stood at the center. He had his back to the door Samus had just entered through and didn't turn around until one of the soldiers caught his attention.

"General, Samus Aran is here."

It was the first time Samus had ever met with Graves face to face, but she had heard about his reputation in the Galactic Army. Mainly his ability to adapt to almost any situation, both in combat and out. And his appearance lived up to the stories that had gone around. Despite the hardened look on his face, there were no scars to suggest he had seen any combat whatsoever. He was the ideal picture of a handsome man, and appeared flawless. But a closer look would reveal the artificial eyes implanted. The iris and blue cornea were there, but the white section was absent, making each eye look like some sort of black hole. A couple strands of his black hair could be seen peeking out from underneath the officer cap on his head.

"I thought I told you two not to escort Aran in here." Graves snapped.

"Sorry sir, procedure." One explained.

"Well, Aran doesn't care much for procedure," He turned toward her. "Do you?"

Samus said nothing, and waited for Graves to dismiss the two guards. Her quick look over the room shown that all the officers were too involved with their jobs to notice he entrance, and probably wouldn't look anyway due to their training.

"So, how are you hunter? Still getting around?"

"You want to tell me what this is about?"

"Right to the point eh? Good, you have not changed a bit." He paused to adjust his hat. "There is a Federation facility known as Sand Trap, we need you to check up on it and locate some personnel."

"Cleaning up another small mess?" Samus asked with biting sarcasm.

"No, we simply... lost contact."

"Uh huh."

Samus was clearly unconvinced by Graves' explanation.

"What does it matter to you Aran? If the money's good-"

"That's not how it works." Samus shot back.

Graves crossed his arms and tilted his head back. Small click and whirrs went off as his artificial eyes kept track of Samus.

"Sand Trap was dealing with a delicate Federation program. Materials that shouldn't fall in the hands of interplanetary gangs or..." He paused and put on a smirk. "Space Pirates."

"How much?" Samus asked after a time.

"200,000 for each day on assignment and a million upon completion. You are just lucky you are as good as you are, or I would not so much spit in your direction."

"Thank you for the complement, now, details."

"An ex-Marine by the name of Sebester Tanner is in charge of Sand Trap operations. The rest of the people involved will be detailed in the personnel roster, which we are downloading into your ship's computer. You need to find out why we can't contact them."

"Why can't the Federation Police do something as simple as this?"

"That is because we already sent a team of officers, and they failed to report back as well." Graves answered darkly. "Why are you complaining? It is a job, is it not?"

Samus turned away, and effectively pissed off General Graves almost immediately.

"Hey!" He shouted. "It is not like I can take command of a couple starships and go over there. Things are different now. We have... new rules and regulations to keep up appearances. But I refuse to just keep sending those Police pinheads and hope I get lucky with one of them succeeding."

It wasn't enough to get Samus to turn back around.

"What's a matter Aran? Did our Metroid program piss you off? I can not see how, when it was you who brought us the last sample. It was not like we weren't going to experiment on it. We had to play a lot of catch up with the Space Pirates, who are probably still years ahead of us on Metroid research."

"No, the Metroid program was to be expected. It's just that I've found out that some of you have a hard time realizing when you've bitten off more than you can chew."

With that she left, and one of the guards standing outside the door was almost pushed out of the way. Graves made no motion to go after her and just narrowed his eyes. One guard remained outside the bridge as the other entered and approached his superior.

"Sir, should we begin to search for another mercenary or bounty hunter?"

Graves laughed.

"What are you talking about? Samus Aran never walks away from a job."

The guard nodded, then saluted.

"Then begin stage two then?"

"Proceed." Graves confirmed, then turned to watch Samus's ship shoot out of the launch bay. "Don't disappoint, hunter."

----------------------------------------

"So." Adam, the computerized entity that existed within the ship's computer, began. "How did your meeting with General Graves go?"

Samus shrugged while setting a course for the Sand Trap facility. From the location given by the Federation databanks, the installation was on the edge of civilization. In other words, it was definitely tucked in a sector no one would find unless they were really looking.

"It went well." Samus answered.

"In other words, you made him beg for your assistance." Adam corrected.

"Everyone needs to be humbled someday."

"In the future, try not to start with Federation Generals. As much as their use have slipped lately, they're still respectable and powerful individuals."

That got a smile from Samus, who had already turned over controls to Adam for the rest of the trip. Originally, the computer was intended as strictly a digital CO to keep tabs on Samus for the Federation. But after taking her new ship to a couple shops, the computer could now take full control of the ship and carry out any other tasks needed to keep it flying. It was simply more convenient and comforting for Samus, having found a partner was sometimes good on a mission, even if it was a computer.

She turned her chair away from the controls and stood up to remove her Fusion Suit. There was a lot of time in-between Argus and Sand Trap for some relaxation, which she didn't get much of lately. The only form of relaxation she had in the ship was her adopted research specimens turned pets. The Etecoon trio and Dachola mother and baby had been with Samus ever since the end of the B.S.L. mission, and it wasn't really her choice anyway. Their natural habitat Zebes had been destroyed by the Space Pirate's self-destruct mechanism, and they had been too helpful and friendly in the past to simply drop off at the nearest planet or asteroid belt.

Samus's ship had gotten awfully crowded in a very short amount of time.

She was still adjusting to the strange feeling of waking up to the sound of the five creatures living in her ship, where it had usually been silent and peaceful. As of right now, the Etecoon trio was going about some strange dancing ritual of hopping up and down. Somehow, Samus knew it was far more complicated than just dancing. Then not too far away was the Dachola mother, keeping a careful watch on her baby trying to navigate the ship.

"One of these days, I'm going to have to find somewhere to drop you all off." Samus sighed.

"There is always Science colonies willing to accept donations." Adam suggested.

"It's my personal experience that they don't last very long."

Scrolling through his databanks, Adam immediately pulled up the Ceres colony and the more recent B.S.L. station to know what Samus meant by that statement. Now Samus was over by a large wall, with a space that was an outline of her suit. She began to press several buttons on her arm cannon and the suit began to come off.

"Adam, tell me about Sebester Tanner. Supposedly, he's the one in charge."

"Of course. Served ten years as a Space Marine in the Galactic Army. When the Space Pirates arrived and started the need for the Federation Police, his unit was disbanded as the new Police force was steadily increased. He was only retired for three months before being recruited to run a top-secret weapons facility known as Sand Trap. The file doesn't mention what Sand Trap produces. But it does mention that Tanner is a trained killer and experienced in handling nearly all forms of weaponry, even the lesser-known Vespula Autorifle."

"Hm... Those weapons need four hands to operate..." Samus recalled, having run into a few of the humanoid wasp-like creatures on previous missions before.

"Apparently, he has ways around it."

"Which means he's one of the best." Samus realized. "Now I know why Graves hired me. But it doesn't explain why someone with that kind of skill lands a desk job. Sounds like he would have made a good mercenary."

"A quick addition," Adam began quickly. "Nearly all of the personnel on base have some relation to Tanner through the Galactic Army."

Samus had finished removing her suit, and now stood in a full body jumpsuit.

__

This will be an interesting mission. Samus thought, while retiring into her small but practical sleeping quarters.

"I will notify you an hour before arrival." Adam said, before the lights in the cockpit went dark.

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Three-Eyed Devil


	3. Chapter 3: Three Eyed Devil

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 3: Three-Eyed Devil

"Decontamination completed."

The electronic voice signaled the end of the lockdown and the airlock soon swung open. Samus made one last glance to the spaceport where her ship was parked and entered. There were three Federation Police cruisers already landed in the spaceport, and Graves had failed to mention sending two more units after the one had not reported back. Then, add on a freighter ship devoid of crew or cargo... anyone could see something was going on.

Finding the facility wasn't too hard after reaching the planet. It stuck out among the black sand like a beacon, since it was the only defining characteristic on the surface. The Sand Trap facility was a large dome structure with five arms branching away from the central area. The spaceport was located on the topmost point of the dome, and occupied with five different crafts. It's maximum was four.

Now Samus had successfully entered the facility and could begin her search. The derelict ships in the spaceport had already made it obvious something was wrong. Her blaster was fully powered and ready to go.

"...attention. Attention. Spaceport has exceeded its limit. Will facility manager report and clear out the unnecessary ships. Attention..."

The message repeated several more times before stopping and silence descend again. With the amount of deserted ships in mind, it was easily an eerie silence. Samus didn't have much of a choice as where to go, as the hallway only led to the large cargo elevator. But before going any deeper into the facility, she moved over to a computer along the wall and turned it on.

"Adam, are you reading anything through the base's sensors?" Samus asked, using the console as a uplink with her ship's computer.

"The base is in fine condition, but not a single system is responding. It's like..."

Adam paused in mid speech, seemingly carried away with some sudden discovery. The bounty hunter waited patiently for him to continue.

"I've gotten weak readings. Life has been detected, in the mess hall located on level 6, living quarters. It seems that our objectives now include searching the base for personnel. Any objections, lady?"

"Hm, copy that. Moving in."

It was hard for her to break the habit of ending any conversation with Adam in her planned actions. For her, it seemed like there were things too deeply ingrained to forget no matter what happened. She went into a little daze, and only snapped out of it when the cargo doors closed and let the lift descend to level 6. That's when she noticed a shadow in the corner. Scanning it would reveal a dead human, a dead Federation Police officer. A closer look would reveal the left eye was missing, torn out and put somewhere, blood dried around the empty socket.

It had been awhile since Samus had seen such an officer. The last time would have been a couple years ago, when she was confronted about the events surrounding the B.S.L. The officer wasn't wearing any heavy combat suit, but was wearing the teal uniform and light armor surrounding the chest, arms, and legs. The standard issue blaster was still firmly in its holster. Whatever had killed the officer, didn't give him the slightest chance to react. The next question to come to mind was where the rest of them were.

Now Samus had her attention fixed on the mouth. It was slightly open, and something was causing the cheeks to bulge out. There was no hesitation, as she carefully took two fingers and opened the mouth completely. Blood spilled out before the object could be made out clearly. The officer's left eye was now staring at her. It had been carefully placed in the mouth after removal. This discovery didn't phase Samus in the least. Instead, the picture of the officer with an eye in his mouth jogged a small memory, one that she could not fully realize at the time, but lingered like someone with a word on the tip of their tongue.

"Level 6, living quarters. Mess Hall, Sleeping Chambers, and Hygiene Stations." The electronic voice announced.

Stepping off the elevator would only provide more corpses for Samus to look about. It was more Federation officers; all missing a left eye. She inspected the mouth of one corpse, to find the eye in the mouth as well and didn't bother with any other corpses. Every body had been treated after death by removing the left eye and placing it in the mouth. It was strange to Samus, only because it was unnecessary. The victims were long gone before the left eyeball was relocated.

The mess hall was easy enough to find because of the many signs designed to hurry base personnel and visitors through the sleeping chambers. Samus would have probably found the mess hall easy enough without the signs, because a trail of corpses was littered about the area like breadcrumbs. The crew of the cargo freighter soon filled in for the lack of Federation officers on the trail. When the hatch to the mess hall was found, she stood there for awhile, then readied her arm cannon.

The hatch opened automatically when Samus was close enough. Now she found herself in a two level room with rows of long tables. It was a massive area, and on the opposite side of the entrance were windows, overlooking the endless black sand. A red sun had begun to rise and served as a substitute for the base lighting. The leftmost wall contained a counter for serving food and the rightmost wall was a table for stacking used dishes and trays.

It seemed to be empty. Then the panicked whimpers of someone from under one of the tables could be heard. When Samus moved to find the source of the whimpers, her loud footsteps caused them to change into tortured cries.

"Who ever is under there, come out." Samus ordered. "You have no need to be afraid. I've been sent by the Federation."

Whoever had wedged themselves under the table refused to follow Samus's commands, and she was forced to push a section of it out of the way. Underneath was a thin, frail man curled up in the fetal position and shaking as if he was having some sort of episode. A quick scan indicated nothing of the sort, only that his heart was racing due to some sort of trauma and that there was evidence of a speech impediment due to brain damage caused by a years old head wound.

"What's wrong-"

Her sentence was cut short by the feeling of a presence in the room. A presence that seemed familiar, but from a long time ago. It only added to the desperate searching of the memory caused by the corpses with the eyeballs in their mouths. Samus readied her arm cannon, and began to carefully move it about the room. The man on the floor continued to squirm more violently.

"Oh god... I thought he was gone! Make... make him go... go away!"

"What? Who's 'he'?"

"He drove all those... people... to... suicide"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something pressed up against the window, outside in the sandstorm. It was a blood red eyeball staring in as if squinting through a microscope. Samus paused as if doubting her senses.

__

It couldn't be... Samus thought.

Two more eyeballs popped up against the other two windows and they all centered their vision on her. The three began to knock up against the window. Slowly at first, and then faster and faster until cracks began to appear. Red splotches were left wherever the eyeball impacted, and soon enough all three windows were covered with blood. The knocking stopped, and silence resumed. Samus was still on high alert.

"No..." The man whimpered. "He won't go away..."

As if on cue the three eyeballs shattered the windows and broke into the room. Emergency shutters slammed close, blocking any sand from entering from the outside. The room was pitch black now, because the shutters also kept out the light. Dead silence consumed everything else. Samus instinctively reached to actuate her X-Ray scanner.

But she didn't get far, before something latched onto her arm...

A shot rang out as she blasted in the direction of whatever had touched her. The room lit up for a split second, and the three eyes that broke in could be seen together, in a triangle formation floating just before her with two on the bottom and one up top. When the quick flash ended, Samus needed no light to know the eyes were still staring at her endlessly.

__

Don't you remember? 

A foreign voice forced it's way into Samus's mind, and made her head ache. She was barely able to fight it back and stay focused.

__

Can't you... **feel** me?

"You were killed." Samus declared, trying not to believe the voice.

__

You should know as a bounty hunter, you cannot kill what has already perished.

An eerie heartbeat began to echo throughout the room, it almost sounded amplified from some other source.

__

However easy it was to destroy the body... it is much more difficult to destroy the soul. You'll learn. I will teach you.

The heartbeat became erratic, and only then did Samus realize it was coming from the man on the floor.

__

The Wrecked Ship... the darkness... the despair... Surely you can remember me now.

"Oh God!" The man cried in agony. "Go away!"

The heartbeat stopped, and the man stopped shaking. The life signs faded from Samus's visor.

__

There is no greater satisfaction than watching a creature die of fear. The total breakdown of their mind, and their spirit shortly afterward. They began to appreciate death. They begin to yearn it. And I am only so happy to provide them with their wishes. Did you enjoy my self-portrait as shown by the bodies in the hall? They did it themselves.

"...after you drove them insane." Samus finished. "Where are you Phantoon?"

The three eyes began to generate a weak red light. This light was strong enough however, to reveal the man on the floor was dead, having clawed out his own eye before shoving it in his mouth. The blood boiled in the mess, as if being cooked. It seemed like the room was on fire, and soon enough it was. The walls had become scorched with a blue plasma flame. Samus spun around toward the eyes.

__

I am right here. Beside you. Just like old times.

Then he was fully visible. The jaw that had once contained one eyeball now contained the three. The yellow diseased skin of the spirit was now as black as charcoal. Dozens upon dozens of black twisted tentacles branched from each side of the mouth, thrashing about as if they were all possessed. An otherworldly gray mist poured from the back of Phantoon, almost hiding the countless jagged spikes lining his back. Phantoon's body was more terrible now than what Samus had ever seen on Zebes before.

"Do you like my new eyes? They should be familiar, I developed them after consuming Kraid's soul. He's a part of me now, you know. Despite his death, he still believes he was the best Mother Brain ever had."

Samus backed away with her arm cannon aimed dead center in Phantoon's three eyes. She wanted to fire away, but there was something holding her. It seemed like some influence was keeping her from interrupting the one sided conversation.

"The destruction of Zebes was a miracle. I never thought I could harvest enough souls for a new body without vanishing into the darkness of space. But... **you **were there. You destroyed Zebes and killed so many in mere seconds... I could never thank you. Oh, but there is one thing I must ask."

Phantoon suddenly disappeared, and then reappeared with his mouth full of eyes lined up point blank with Samus's arm cannon.

"Shoot me Samus." The twisted Phantoon begged. "I must feel the suffering you cause, again. I **must** feel it again, before I consume **you**."

Samus finally regained control of her body and fired without a second thought. Phantoon's three eyes took the full blast and began to spin around in random directions. But the eyes slowly came to a stop, staring directly at Samus once again. The direct hit had done nothing.

"Heh heh heh... I remember that pain. Now I can devour you without regrets."

Phantoon "blinked", and blue plasma began to pour from his three eyes. It over took Samus before she could so much as fire off another shot. It knocked her off her feet, and carried her into the wall. A sickening thud could be heard as her suit connected with the reinforced metal walls. She made it out of the barrage with a Morph Ball roll, but the ghost was quick to notice and reacted just as fast. Phantoon merely phased out view and appeared before Samus. He could hear her ready the missile system and lashed out with his tentacles.

The tentacles did not thrash the Fusion Suit and instead went right through until striking Samus's body directly. She went limp as soon as Phantoon's many limbs touched her. Excruciating pain followed next, shooting up and down her body. It was as if someone was trying to rip her brain right out of her skull without bothering to make a hole for removal. The pressure was immense. Whatever Phantoon was doing to her it caused an out of body experience several times. Each time she came out of it with her eyes shooting wide open and seeing the ghost still before her.

"Can't you feel me tearing away your life energy?" Phantoon laughed. "Soon... you'll become a part of me. Then you can spend eternity resolving your issues with Kraid and the other Space Pirates you slaughtered on Zebes!" 

Then he became silent for a time, watching Samus jerk around in his grip.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you Samus!"

Samus did not have much choice as Phantoon lifted her body up, causing her head to fall back to look up at him. The three eyes resting in the bizarre jaw drilled through her body with their strange sight. However, there was no fear to be found in the hunter's eyes.

"That's what I always liked about you. Looking into my eyes would drive a normal creature insane. Where you simply see your own reflection. You've brought misery to more worlds than the Space Pirates ever could. If it weren't for your choice to preserve rather than destroy... I would have followed you to the ends of existence."

Now Phantoon was shaking Samus up and down, crashing her into tables and any wall they might have gotten close enough too.

"Such dirty blood." Phantoon groaned. "It's hard to peel the soul from your body. It doesn't seem to be able to let go. What have you done to yourself?"

Suddenly, control returned to Samus's body, and she wasted no time raising her arm and firing a missile point blank into her phantom attacker. With Phantoon's eyes wide open, she expected it to be a critical hit. But there was no ungodly roar, no confirmation of the attack she had just launched. But it did accomplish one thing, the ghost did let go of her. Landing on the ground soon let her know just how much pain he had inflicted.

"Is that.... a part of a Metroid in your body?" Phantoon asked in a curious way.

Samus looked to see nothing had happened to her target from the missile attack.

"It's changed your life energy. Your soul... it is unlike anything I have ever seen." He now laughed. "It looks so delicious."

Samus struggled to stand, feeling as if someone had stabbed her a million times all over. Every part of her body braced for another attack since she was down and mostly disabled at the moment. But it never came. Instead she looked up to see that Phantoon had turned away, staring off into the distance in a strange trance. Almost as if someone was calling him.

"Oh... In that case..." Phantoon turned back to Samus. "You have been given a stay of execution, Samus Aran. You are allowed to cause more suffering where you may. Do enjoy it as much as I will."

Lights returned to the room as well as the whole base as Phantoon's influence left the systems of the Sand Trap facility.

"Tch.... Damn." Samus moaned, having trouble getting on her feet.

But eventually she did and stumbled across the room in order to take a seat. The recent encounter with Phantoon had already begun to weigh heavily on her mind, seeing as how she did nothing to hurt him. So much thought was trained on the recent fight, that footsteps making it's way toward the mess hall were not heard until they entered it. Samus reacted quickly, pointing her arm cannon in the direction of the sound.

"For the love of god! Please don't shoot!"

A woman in a red jumpsuit had just entered. The personnel roster identified the woman as Victoria Maitlin, the head of the Sand Trap science team. She didn't look too much better than when Samus located the frail man on the floor. But she was alive.

"Victoria Maitlin? Are you ok?" The woman reluctantly nodded, and that was good enough for Samus to move on. "What happened here?"

Tears formed around Victoria's eyes. They were tears of joy.

"Thank God you came! I thought that... thing! That three-eyed devil was going to..."

"He's gone now."

This statement disturbed Victoria.

"You sound like... you've..."

"We've run into each other before." Samus admitted. "Now, tell me what happened here. Where are the other personnel?"

Victoria slowly made her way toward the table where Samus sat and then noticed the frail man on the ground.

"Lloyd... Jeez'us! He's like the others..."

"Lloyd Jenson, you mean?" Samus asked upon locating another name on the personnel roster.

Her visor pulled up the picture for the name, and the face matched what was left of the man on the ground.

"We always called him the Worm Guy because he loved to stare at the sand snakes outside. The other guys always called them worms to give him a hard time." Victoria explained, finding comfort in the memory. "Why are you here... who are you?"

But as soon as Victoria had asked it, she knew the answer.

"Wait... you're Samus Aran. You... you're that bounty hunter. I can't believe this. This place was so normal days ago. Things are going so fast. Tanner would have never expected any of this..."

"Sebester Tanner?" Samus said quickly. "Where is he? Where is everyone else? Are they dead?"

Victoria didn't answer, she seemed overwhelmed by everything and began to gag. The feelings experienced from seeing her first dead body rushed back and vomiting followed. Some of it landed on Samus's suit, but there was no reaction to it.

"Oh god... I'm so sorry." Victoria stuttered.

"There have been worse things on it before." Samus told her, then paused. "Now that you've gotten that all out of your system. Start at the beginning, and tell me everything I need to know."

--To be continued...

---Next Chapter: Hunter and the Hunted


	4. Chapter 4: Hunter and the Hunted

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 4: Hunter and the Hunted

"...and this is where we combine the two substances for the final product. Here is the goal of Project Blackdie" Victoria finished.

Samus and Victoria had relocated to the lower labs after the scientist had disclosed the purpose of the facility and it's "final product". Zonagen. It had answered some questions for Samus, like why the base was situated on such an unforgiving planet. The materials needed for making Zonagen could literally be found lying everywhere outside. A special vehicle designed for sand recovery and an environmental suit was all you needed to complete half the work. It however, did not explain any time before or after the arrival of Phantoon.

"Zonagen. Another Federation weapon. Humph." Samus commented while looking over the pressurized tubes leading to large vats for mixing.

"Sebester sent an unencrypted message to General Graves a week ago. Next thing I knew, he had acquired a large cargo ship and took every drum of Zonagen for relocation. I thought he had official orders. Like Graves had responded... but there was none to be found anywhere."

"He's operating on his own then." Samus decided.

Victoria nodded.

"It was three days ago. He told me that he was leaving the facility, and left everyone without combat experience or who couldn't pull their own weight. He didn't say why or where he was going... he just left."

"He just left you here to die?" Samus asked, beginning to wonder how cold and dangerous Tanner could be.

"No... it wasn't like that. The day he left, a Zon freighter was scheduled to arrive. We could get a ship off the planet then... but..."

__

Phantoon arrived. Samus thought.

Samus turned to see Victoria shaking, memories still fresh in her mind and driving her nerves crazy.

"They landed, the decontamination finished... and no one got off the ship. Henry went to see what was the matter. He didn't come back either" She paused to gulp. "When we found his body at the bottom of the loading ramp, it came after us. We ran to hide, but there was no escaping. So it took its time killing us off. That's when the Federation Police arrived. The first group. They got one step off their boarding ramp before it slaughtered them."

"I see. Then the other two units arrived to experience the same fate."

"If Tanner was still here..." Victoria caught herself before continuing and began again. "Then you showed up, and got rid of it."

Samus said nothing, to confirm or deny that statement. Her primary concern was keeping Victoria in good mental health. Any facility data gathered by security cameras or crew logs had already been wiped out by Phantoon upon arrival. The Wrecked Ship on Zebes was devoid of any clues to where it came from, and Samus knew Sand Trap's computers would be the same way. As advanced as the ghost was, he was still a creature of habit, creating fear and confusion wherever he went.

"Is there any way you could explain Tanner's actions?" Samus asked suddenly.

"He was tired of sitting here and getting swept aside by other projects. The B.S.L. took most of our funding when the Metroid sample was taken from the larva." Victoria moved over to a table full of various scientific devices and smiled. "I've never seen Tanner so happy when he heard it was destroyed. But it didn't bring our funding back, nor the Federation's attention."

The sound of this made Samus wonder if the B.S.L. was the only Metroid farm the Federation had set up. Victoria had nearly confirmed it, if an installation as expensive Sand Trap went on without proper funding after the B.S.L. went down. But there was no reason to be there now. Sebester Tanner was on the loose with a ship full of deadly biological weaponry that could be hijacked at any time.

"The Federation never knew what Zonagen was capable of." Samus told Victoria. "Their Metroid projects took up all their attention, and now they let this slip through their fingers. But Tanner knew and anyone who wasn't with him, he'd leave for dead right here."

"No." Victoria said strongly.

Samus became annoyed with Victoria's ignorance, but kept herself restrained and let the scientist continue to talk.

"Tanner said... they'd send someone as soon as possible, cause it was a security risk."

"That ghost you saw was Phantoon. Phantoon is a part of the Space Pirates. Surely you heard stories of their speed and brutality? Did you really think they would pass up an opportunity like this? You should have reported him. He put this entire facility in danger."

Victoria didn't respond and Samus's voice grew cold.

"You know the weapon better than anyone else. You are head of the Zonagen Research Team, and Tanner left you here? No, more like you didn't want to go with him." Samus realized. "You wanted to stay behind, and your team joined you. What did Tanner tell you before he left?"

"What's wrong with you?" Victoria lashed out. "I barely escaped with my life! My friends are dead... how can you be so cold?"

"I just don't like it when people are lying to me. Somehow, lies always surface at the worst possible moment. They can cost people their lives."

Victoria flinched at that statement and turned away. It was an instant giveaway to Samus that she knew something and quickly moved in front of her. Whenever the scientist tried to move, Samus was there to block her. It was easy with the size of the large Varia Fusion Suit.

"Where did he go?" Samus asked again.

"I don't know! He didn't tell me!"

There was a long pause and Samus pressed further.

"You know what Zonagen is capable of. You saw what Phantoon did here. Try to take some responsibility. What will happen if the Space Pirates find Tanner first and take Zonagen and it's blueprints?"

"The Metroids..." Victoria stuttered, slowly seeing Samus's point. "They're primarily interested in the-"

"Any weapon is good enough for the Space Pirates, so long as the Federation or anyone else doesn't have them instead." Samus corrected.

Victoria was glaring at Samus now, she had overcome her fear, and now distrust and anger filled in the holes.

"What are you going to do to Sebester if you find him?"

"Turn him into Graves. I have no authorization to terminate anyone from Sand Trap."

The scientist looked up and backed away from the bounty hunter. Her eyes were overfilling with anger.

"Did you have authorization to destroy the B.S.L. and SR-388?" Victoria asked strongly.

"You don't know anything about that mission." Samus told her, refusing to give up any ground.

"I'll take that as a no." Victoria was frantic now, with a unstable voice. "You operate on your own as well. You're everything Tanner said you were. You're a monster. That's why you're so good at fighting the Space Pirates. It takes one to slay one!"

Victoria caught herself in her own unstable rambling and froze in mid sentence. It was then Samus crossed her arms with the arm cannon in full sight. Even with the visor shielding Samus's face, Victoria couldn't help but have the feeling the she was glaring at her angrily. The tension was mounting for the Sand Trap scientist, but when Samus spoke again it was in a calm and collected tone.

"You nor I have time for this. Tell me what you know about Tanner's plans." There was a pause. "Please. Whatever I can do to him, Phantoon or any other Space Pirate will do tenfold. I know you're trying to protect him for whatever reason, but he's putting countless lives at stake."

The mere mention of the Space Pirate phantom caused Victoria to do a double take. She gagged and clutched her stomach. It seemed like any mention of the word "Phantoon" would bring back horrible memories.

"No... Not that... I would never wish that on anyone. I just don't want you to kill him!"

Samus said nothing and continued to wait. Victoria had become quiet now, and sat on the floor, holding her legs close to her body.

"Big Blue. Tanner said if he ever got out of here, he'd go to Big Blue because there was so much water. It was so warm... It was everything this place wasn't."

"Thank you. We're leaving now. I'm going to drop you off at the nearest colony. You'll have to face General Graves and the Federation now."

Victoria nodded and lowered her head.

"Whatever... just take me away from this place..." She sobbed.

----------------------------------------

The Waterfall City on Big Blue was something else. Every building was built into the cliff where the ocean came to a massive drop, and the end result was a curtain of water rushing by the windows. The bottom was too far down to hear any crashing, so a crystal clear window of water fell so close, you could stick your hand out. The only problem was, the sudden interruption would send the spray of water everywhere. Tanner had forgotten what it was all about after being away from civilization so long.

He stood on the balcony, looking down at the abyss where the water disappeared. Not too far was another waterfall, where the city had been built in a canyon Oh yes, this was certainly much better than some dump on a planet where the only thing was black sand. Even the hotel room was able to keep his attention for hours on end. So much so that Scratch couldn't help but come up and check up on him.

"Hey boss." Scratch called out from the door.

Tanner knew that to Scratch, nothing was sacred, not even privacy. This prompted him to quickly look himself over before appearing in public. He had lost the suit coat, but kept his brown pants and white shirt. The one modification he did do, was a cheap looking, blue tropical shirt, decorated with all kinds of strange flowers. The concept was foreign to him, but he had seen everyone else do it and the more he looked like anyone else, the better.

"You ever heard of knocking, loser?" Tanner yelled back.

By that time, Scratch had hacked the lock and barged in with a sly grin.

"Nice to see you haven't gotten drunk or anything. Come on, we're ready to go."

Tanner turned toward the balcony and the room as if he wanted to stay in there forever. But eventually he nodded and followed after Scratch down to the lobby. There was a long glass elevator ride before reaching the ground floor. Statues of the local aquatic life and graceful dolphin-like fountains lined the walls. It was the cleanest water you've ever seen, and the most you could have ever wanted.

"Damn, I'm glad we picked this spot." Scratch said as they went outside through a glass tunnel that was used to divert the waterfall and keep guests dry.

"It's nice for a scene change. But don't forget we're here to do business."

A truck soon pulled up in front of them, and the bald man with the beard was at the wheel. A muscle man with thick brown hair was in the passenger seat wearing some sort of mechanics outfit, but Tanner promptly kicked him into the backseat along with Scratch. They exchanged some greetings, and the bald man carefully maneuvered the truck into the fast moving traffic. It had taken them awhile to adjust to the high-speed antigravity transportation on Big Blue. They had been in a position where no driving was required for so long that very little of them remembered how to do it.

"So, boss, who are we gonna sell this stuff to? No one knows about it. And if we advertise, the Federation's gonna come looking for us." Scratch pointed out.

"Tanner's got it figured out." The bald man answered.

"I didn't ask you, Chester."

"They're already looking for us." Tanner said suddenly. "I heard Graves bought himself some top talent bounty hunter."

The cab went silent.

"Well..." The bald man known as Chester began. "Who is it?"

Tanner said nothing, and simply gave him a glance that said it all without the words attached. He should just let the topic slide.

"Anyway," The muscleman began. "I was thinkin', you know the Space Pirates are always wanting stuff. And if we let them in on our deal, we could buy ourselves some immunity from their operations. You know, turn a blind eye to us whenever they raid a colony. There's this Pirate defector I met in a bar, who could probably hook us up. He says he could get Ridley to come down and take a look.."

"Boris, are you retarded?" Scratch snapped.

"What?" Boris held his hands up.

"Let me ask you something, muscles." Tanner interrupted. "Say you're driving along some forested planet. A furry four legged creature runs out in front of you and you nail it. You just killed it. Now, what do you think the chances are that someone will find you, arrest you, and bring you up on charges for killing that animal?"

"Who cares about a damn animal." Boris scoffed.

This was exactly what Tanner wanted to hear, and spun around before jabbing his finger into Boris's chest.

"Exactly. Now you know how the entire Space Pirates group views the Federation and it's inhabitants. The reason why they do so much killing, and take what they want, is because we're animals to them. Forget any sanctity of life and sentient being shit you've been taught before. They'd rather kill you and mount your body on the wall than try to coexist."

This had shut up Boris, but Scratch was not satisfied by his boss's explanation. Mostly because he favored the idea that Space Pirates were just a bunch of alien jackasses that didn't play well with others.

"Is that so? What about Ridley?" Scratch demanded. "I hear he's got this real deep vendetta with Samus Aran... If she's just an animal to him, why does he go after her so religiously? Who cares about an animal?"

Tanner paused to roll up his window. They were heading through an underwater tunnel, and the ocean smell was beginning to become aggravating.

"You know those wolf animals on Earth right?" Tanner continued.

"Yeah? So what?" Scratch said slowly.

"You know they're dangerous, and you respect them for it. This means whenever you see a wolf you're going to be very careful around them. But that doesn't change the fact they're still animals." He laughed. "Hell, Ridley's more like Captain Ahab lookin' for a white whale."

"Huh? Well god dammit." Scratch huffed, knowing he was beat.

The cab was silent again as Chester pulled off the underwater road to reach the surface. They were approaching a spaceport specially designed for long distance freighter ships.

"So, remember. Don't any of you losers go trying to contact the Space Pirates. I don't care how much you think you're a goddamn expert on them. The facts are that they take what they want and leave the rest for the worms. Don't **ever** forget that. You hear me?" He waited for them to all nod earnestly. "Good, now shut up about them."

Now they had pulled onto the road leading to the South Blue Ocean Spaceport. Any approaching craft landed on the surface where a massive platform was constructed, and was then lowered into underwater hangars. Bad storms and Tsunami's could occur at any time, and there were several ships sitting on the bottom of the sea that tried to push their luck. The ship that Tanner and most of the Sand Trap crew was in one of the lowest parking bays, known for housing the ships with the more sensitive cargo.

The tunnel they drove the truck through required ID cards and retinal scans before the guards would let them into the hangar where their ship was stored. The large open room was occupied with a mass of people, moving about a line of semi trucks with the same anti-gravity technology all vehicles in big blue contained. The thirty or so people were all dressed in jumpsuits of some sort and worked quickly with loading gear. Nearly every single one of them saluted when Tanner approached. One could say they were highly organized.

"Yo! How we doin'?" Tanner yelled over the noise to a heavy man in an expensive gray business suit.

"Almost got everything out. Soon the only thing sitting here will be an empty spaceship."

"Good, remember to tell everyone to change out of those monkey suits. We ain't working in Sand Trap anymore. Do it quick, first things first. You hear me?"

"There some kind of problem?"

"I think we're gonna have company real soon. Federation company. You know what I mean? It doesn't help us that most of these guys have had their heads under the sand so long they forgot how to think. Keep a real good eye on them, make sure their brain is operating on all cylinders." 

The heavy man nodded and turned toward the group unloading the freighter ship.

"Sure, any other specific messages you want me to pass along to them?"

He thumbed toward the group working around them.

"Yeah, tell them not to talk to any bounty hunters." Tanner said sarcastically. 

Then he took a moment to organize his thoughts and became more serious.

"And don't mouth off about anything in relation to Project Blackdie. We're gonna run this like it's a black op. Like the old Galactic Army days."

After mentioning that, the heavy man couldn't help but salute and rush off to carry out Tanner's request. What the men where moving were square, pressurized black boxes. Every single box was labeled with a glowing blue number and security code. Federation emblems could be found on top of every container, but there were men quickly burning them off with laser cutters. 

Scratch, Boris, and Chester soon began to help along the final process, which involved moving every crate from the ship to the back of the trucks. Tanner oversaw the process, nodding approvingly at the work. Then, he began to plan their next moves. The arrival of Samus Aran had to be taken into account, no matter what.

--To be continued...

---Next Chapter: Boiling the Big Blue


	5. Chapter 5: Boiling the Big Blue

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 5: Boiling the Big Blue

Samus Aran found her arrival to Big Blue much easier than expected. Any business owner who had ever run a chain of intergalactic resort casinos and hotels could track Samus's ship a mile away. Usually because whenever she showed up, damage and destruction were not usually too far away. Particularly creative insurance companies had begun to offer "Bounty Hunter Insurance" after handling countless claims that Samus Aran had damaged the premises trying to acquire a bounty. And after the B.S.L. incident became widely known, it had almost become a necessity if you ran a business with the slightest possibility of attracting undesirable visitors.

There was no contact during landing like most of the other times, but the minute she took five steps away from her ship, someone had stepped forward to meet her on the spaceport-landing zone. It was a man in green, with an electronic notebook in hand. He talked fast and was generally interrogating Samus in order to figure out how much they should start their claim for damages at. Although as nervous the man was with confronting a bounty hunter, he was clearly intent on fulfilling his job. The handshake he attempted to offer was rejected.

"We just wanted to make sure how long you're going to be staying." The man was explaining. "The people I represent become very... nervous about their investments when you're around. They've heard stories."

"I'm looking for a man. The faster I locate him, the faster I'll be on my way." Samus explained in a flat tone. "The Federation has hired me."

The fact that the Federation was somehow involved did not make the man feel any better.

"They hired you?" The man was extremely surprised. "Maybe... the owners of The Serpent Reef Hotel could be of assistance in locating this man. Now... what was his name?"

Samus did not reveal anything and began walking away.

"Wait! Hold on-"

"I don't have time for this. We're done talking." Samus declared, picking up her pace.

At this point, she had caused the man in green to run and leap in her way. He was shaking, but seemed desperate to stop her from continuing.

"Look... The emperor brothers Sturm and Drang just arrived yesterday. They're the leaders of Black Hole. It's their first visit to Big Blue; we **need** to make a good first impression. And the Vespula royal family has also come here on a trip. Big Blue... as well as the business I represent does not want you causing trouble. Please!" The man paused to gulp and loosen his tie. "You could jeopardize diplomatic relations! Not to mention cause billions of credits in damage. Haven't you detonated enough things for one lifetime?"

Samus paused, and gave the man in green the mistaken feeling he had gotten his point across. However, the bounty hunter began walking again, and the man in green attempted to continue pleading his case. He didn't get very far before she cut him off.

"I'm only after my bounty. I'd advise everyone to stay out of the way until I'm done here."

By that time, the conversation was over and Samus had made her way down to the streets of Neptune. It was the largest of the resort cities on Big Blue, and seemed to have a field of towering reflective skyscrapers. They were in various shapes. Some looked like lightning bolts and some like hourglasses. Palm trees lined the streets as countless antigravity cars with convertible tops passed by. It had been a long time since Samus had visited the resort planet, and she had to keep in mind that there were sprawling underwater communities as well. It would not be easy to find anyone on Big Blue.

But the man that had approached her on the spaceport offered some information that could be useful. Such as the fact that there had recent arrival of important guests hailing from areas outside the Federation. It had already begun to feel like they had come for a purpose, not just to enjoy a vacation. The idea of a vacation was a human concept anyway, and many other creatures could not understand. Now Samus was not familiar with the emperors from Black Hole, but the Vespula, she was well knowledgeable in, and the Vespula are one of the species that did not understand vacations.

The humanoid-wasp race, though very intelligent, was an empire driven to complete one goal. The entire species worked to serving their royal family and queen. There was no other objective in mind other than duty. The Vespula had clashed with the Galactic Army several times before the arrival of the Space Pirates. Those conflicts were based over simple need for territory and planet space. Eventually a compromise was attained, but everyone knew that the Vespula were still bitter because they had not taken the planets they wanted.

Samus knew this, but the mention of Black Hole required consulting Adam and the Federation databanks. She made her way to the nearest hotel, getting strange looks from the lightly dressed visitors and inhabitants the whole way. It had just occurred to her at that moment how comfortable the climate made her feel in the Fusion Suit. The temperature was on par with a regular tropical paradise. She almost missed a hotel with a communications kiosk thinking about it.

The glass doors slid open, and she found the kiosk was more than suitable enough to contact Adam in her ship.

"Something wrong Samus?" Adam asked, hearing earlier from her than usual.

"No. I need you to look through the Federation databanks. Find anything concerning a group known as Black Hole."

Adam went about searching the databanks as Samus requested. He was still primarily a Federation machine and had full access so long as it applied to the mission. While that was being done, Samus was looking at the crowds that passed her by. Many would avoid trying to make any eye contact and some went out of their way to keep their distance. So far, she had spotted no one from Sand Trap, and there was at least twenty personnel still missing.

"There is no mention of any faction or organization by the name of Black Hole. However, I have heard stories."

There was a long pause, and Samus knew that he was drawing information from his uploaded consciousness.

"What I've heard the most before my mind was uploaded into the Federation databanks, was that Black Hole is driven on conquering other planets. The big deal about them was that they supposedly possess unparalleled technology, but for some reason only use the weapons of the planets they are taking over to fight with."

"They do it for sport." Samus realized, slightly disturbed.

"Hm. Very perceptive. It never occurred to me their reasoning why, mostly because no one in the Federation has ever seen any of them to back up reports and rumors."

"Hence, no information in the databanks. Well, the resort official mentioned the names, Sturm, and Drang."

"Hm... that would be more information on them in years, but I'm sure anything they say to others is a lie. But I know nothing more about Black Hole or their leaders."

"Hm... alright."

"Take extreme precaution. Especially with the presence of civilians."

That wrapped up the conversation with Adam, and Samus made her way out onto the street in front of the small hotel. She looked up and down the block, seeing the mass of inhabitant's scurry back and forth. It was time to go about the most drawn out portion of the mission, looking around. The strained relations with the Federation made it a safe bet she wouldn't be able to depend on the local authorities and this didn't bother her. The only thing that bothered her was that it had been awhile since she had worked in a highly populated area. Still, her instincts made her recall the conversation with the resort representative. The Serpent Reef Hotel had received a flood of important visitors, it would be a good place to start.

The hotel was a massive structure just down the street from where Samus had landed. It stood out in the Neptune skyline with its two brightly colored towers. The data acquired from the initial scan made it known that the hotel went deep into the ocean as well, with a sprawling underwater section. The sea level entrance was located on its circular foundation, and the towers continued the circular structural design. It seemed to be built around a massive coral reef that was bursting with activity. Any first look would quickly label it as an expensive hotel, especially with the army of employees out front moving about to please any and all visitors with wealth to spare.

Samus was watching the entrance carefully, observing the guests that came in and out of the hotel from right across the street. They were all very important people by Federation standards. CEOs of companies from all aspects of life, members of the intergalactic council, and leaders of planets and more. But a name soon popped up on her visor, she had scanned someone from Sand Trap. She quickly adjusted her view to spot where the person was, and the files from the Federation made a match with the face.

"Sylus 'Scratch' Thompson." Samus said, reading off the name.

As the nickname suggested, the man was currently busy scratching his head while walking out of the hotel. His clothes would have been on par with your typical tourist. A red shirt full of tropical plants and khaki shorts. There were goggles around his neck so he could get a better range of his head. However, his arm began to slow down as he made Samus out from across the street. They stared at each other for a couple seconds. Scratch seemed dumbstruck, nearly turning white, and then turned around and darted back into the hotel. 

The chase was on.

Cars came to a dead stop in order not to hit Samus as she ran across the street with no fear. The hotel employees at the door saw her coming and got out of the way as she charged into the circular lobby. The round and primarily white area was crowded, the artificial sky being the cause for most people to stop and look up. The gold colored floor didn't help Scratch any as he ducked down and tried to get out of Samus's view. He knew he couldn't possibly outrun her if she could keep visual contact. The stories of her "Speed Booster" was just one of the legends he heard Tanner barking to him on the trip to Big Blue.

Scratch's small stature made it easy for him to get lost in a sea of people. But this didn't stop Samus in the least as she cut her way through the crowd, most of the people moving to the side themselves. However, there was too many people to rip through the lobby with a speed boost, and too many to make use of the ice beam. But the fleeing Sand Trap technician soon lost his crowd cover as everyone had stopped to see Samus Aran running through the lobby in full stride. They were running circles around the desk in the center, and it wasn't long until black clad hotel security came running out to try and figure out just what the hell was happening.

They nearly ran headlong into Samus while fighting their way through the crowds. They probably would have too if it wasn't for Samus's acrobatic jump over them and ten or so guests. Now the whole room was in an uproar with people clapping and some screaming out of surprise. Scratch took the time during the commotion to find an exit and darted through it. He had picked some red carpeted stairs leading downward into the underwater section of the hotel. His urgency nearly caused him to go head first, but he caught himself... only to lose it on the last three steps.

"Aw! Son of a bitch!" He cursed, landing flat on his rear.

When he looked up, Samus had come to the top and had spotted him at the bottom. He was off like a light once again. Once the bounty hunter had made it down the stairs without plowing through anyone, she found herself in a snaking circular hallway. It was reminiscent of an underwater tunnel, with curved glass walls and ceilings to display the vibrant reef around them. A shriek somewhere down the hall pointed Samus in the right direction, and stumbled upon a woman that Scratch had gut checked while looking over his shoulder.

"I can't believe that jerk!" The woman was moaning, but quickly forgot about him when Samus passed. "Hey! It's Samus Aran!"

Scratch was running like hell was on his heels. To his relief, he came to a T-section and turned right to head further downwards. He thought he had read a sign that mentioned "Deep Water Suites". It didn't really matter, so long as he could lose the bounty hunter chasing after him.

"Look out!" Samus yelled.

The large group of octopus men that had just come down another set of stairs hardly understood what the bounty hunter had yelled, and instead froze in their tracks as the strange metal creature charged toward them. They were soon treated to a Morph Ball maneuver as Samus rolled in-between their tentacle legs before changing back and continuing her run after Scratch. The next people to come along were two members of hotel security. They had their back to Samus and were talking amongst themselves.

"Central just reported a stranger approaching the Deep Water Suites, you see anyone?"

"Phhh... I dunno. Topside is going crazy about something. I think a loony bastard just charged into the lobby."

They soon heard Samus slide to a stop and pivot to run off toward the Deep Water Suites. Both guards just gave a look at each other, not even shouting or trying to stop the individual that had just charged past them.

"Hell, I'm not going after that." The first guard muttered.

The atmosphere changed in the Deep Water Suites, the red carpet had changed to a teal color, and several re-enforced rust colored doors began to show up. Through the glass, Samus could make out that they branched off to the more expensive rooms of the hotel. The water, although clear as can be, had gotten much darker, creating the need for running lights along the floor. It was also a much quieter place than the lobby or the hallways before. One could make it out as an almost eerie silence.

It was this silence that caused Samus to slow to a creep, listening intently for sounds of heavy breathing or quivering lips. The hallway had branched out several more ways, like an intersection and she had not seen which way Scratch had run.

"Scratch!" Samus called out suddenly.

A frightened cry escaped to the left, and Scratch came rolling out from a janitor's closet. As Samus had expected, the chase had turned him into a ball of nerves, and easily excitable. He jumped up and took off, running much slower than when they were on the surface. This was the difference between the hunter and the hunted, the hunter still had stamina to spare due to the suit she wore. It looked like she was about to catch up to him when he turned the corner. But when she rounded the bend, an unpleasant surprise awaited.

"Freeze worm! Identify yourself!" A strangely garbled voice barked.

The sound of weapons charging came next as Samus raised the arm cannon to counter. The standoff was due to a dozen or so strange creatures Samus had never seen before. They were blue skinned, and wore a large black spacesuit, that's shape could be compared to a bean of some sort. These creatures had gun arms that resembled the way Samus had her blaster built into the suit, except they had no Chozo design influenced by Metroid DNA. Through the large porthole visor, Samus could make out short snouts like elephants, only that it was completely straight.

Another observation was that Scratch had seemingly disappeared, but one could only assume he had gone further down the hallway the creatures were blocking. The actions going on now made Samus think they were protecting him for some reason, but she couldn't say why at the moment, still partially distracted by their strange appearances.

"Lower your weapon! Before we make you lower it ourselves!"

"I'm pursuing someone," Samus said after awhile, keeping completely calm. "You are in my way and letting him escape."

A creature in a suit with a silver stripe stepped forward. Clearly it was the leader of the group.

"Tch. In your way? We are Sturm and Drang's personal guard. We are **meant **to be in your way."

Several more moments of standoff went by, as each side was trying to decide who would fire first.

"You are lucky our leaders are resting, worm, or we would not hesitate to open fire."

"The feeling is mutual, only I'm more concerned about the guests getting into something they don't have any part in." Samus shot back.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Someone called out from behind Samus.

A swarm of hotel security came running out. All of them were waving their arms and signals to back off. The group of creatures quickly stood down, and Samus shortly afterward.

"There's no need for this..." The hotel representative in green from before stepped forward. "Gentlemen, I'd like to offer a deep and full apology from the Serpent Reef Hotel... We're terribly sorry about this breech of security and overall, the disturbance."

"We shall see if your apology is accepted when we report to our rulers about this." The leader threatened.

"And Aran... what the hell are you doing? Didn't I tell you that you weren't welcome here?"

"A man needed for questioning ran in here... I pursued him. It was critical I talked to him concerning my mission from the Federation."

"Yeah about that." The man in green scoffed. "General Graves just contacted our head of security, he wants to know why you're tearing up a hotel. He wanted me to pass along an order to report back immediately."

It was clear to Samus that she was outnumbered, both in presence and outside power. She soon turned away from the group of strange creatures and passed the mob of hotel security without giving a second look.

"This doesn't bode well for you... worm." The leader of the creatures said before leaving.

The man in green stood there watching both sides retreat and ran his hands through his hair.

"Well dear God, this is just... great." He turned to his men. "Keep your eyes peeled from now on, she'll be back."

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Encircled


	6. Chapter 6: Encircled

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 6: Encircled

Tanner picked one of the closest spots near the entrance to park his truck. He had just gotten a call from the elusive Black Hole group. They vaguely mentioned something about having an unexpected guest he might know. When he got out of the vehicle and made sure it was properly secured, he headed toward the entrance with hands in pockets. He really didn't care the least bit about someone noticing him and calling for the Federation Police, because there would be no APB out for his arrest. To do so, they'd have to admit the Sand Trap facility's existence, and whole bunch of other things they'd rather keep under the table at the moment.

There were security guards on the inside, still mopping up after the recent chase. Tanner made his way around the mob of security guards until noticing Scratch in the company of two Black Hole soldiers. He was heading toward the three, when the soldier with the silver stripe stepped right out him.

"Are you Sebester Tanner?" The leader asked.

"Yeah, that's me. Is that the 'unexpected guest' you were talking about?" Tanner pointed to Scratch.

"Indeed. He is incredibly lucky. Had he not talked as fast as he did, we would have shot him on sight."

"Speaking of which," Tanner shifted his weight and put his full concentration back into the soldier. "When am I going to be able to talk to your leaders? We have business to discuss."

"It won't be today. And after this one here..." The soldier raised his gun arm to gesture in Scratch's direction. "Don't expect it to be any time soon. Worm."

"Tch. Yeah, you do that. You guys ain't even from around here. Tell your bosses they should stay under that rock of theirs anyway."

The leader walked off without responding to Tanner's comment and took other two soldiers with him. They went downstairs as Scratch made his way up to Tanner and let out a sigh.

"Whew! Man! You'll never guess who I just ran my ass off from." Scratch began. "Samus goddamn Aran! She's here on Big Blue! If it weren't for Sturm and Drang's men..."

Tanner nodded and showed his teeth in a smile. It looked more like he was grinding them together though as he began to walk toward the elevators. Scratch slowly followed after him, waiting for a response.

"That's just great, cause ol' Red-Dead Ridley just paid two of our guys a little visit a couple hours ago."

The mention of Ridley caused Scratch to twitch uncomfortably and freeze in his tracks. You could tell he was running the words "it can't be, it can't be" through his mind right then.

"Are you sure? How... I mean there's no way..."

His voice trailed off as he noticed Tanner was carrying something for the first time. It was an old yellow bucket, and it was filled to the brim with ash. Some white particles... that resembled bones could be seen sometimes when the dust shifted from side to side. Now the two were looking at each other as they waited for the elevator.

"You can't tell me that's-"

"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust." Tanner said simply.

"Oh my God."

"Come on, we're heading up." Tanner made a motion with his hand. "Just remember what I told you about Vespula."

Scratch shot Tanner an angry look.

"What? Meet with them? No way, I'm staying down here; you go talk to the wasp people."

"That's bad Scratch. Not showing loyalty to your leader and breaking from his side. You forgot the Vespula are all about servitude and loyalty. They hate cowards. The more you make yourself out looking dedicated to me the better."

"There's no way I'm going to act like I kiss your ass all the time."

This statement caused Tanner to laugh a bit.

"You mean to say you don't?"

The elevator dinged as Scratch took a swing and hit his boss in the shoulder. However, he did get in the elevator as it headed upwards toward the Teal Tower Suites. The Teal Tower structure was the left tower when looking at it from the front entrance, while the other tower was known as the Orange Tower. Tanner had learned from a quick communication that the Vespula royal family had checked themselves into the topmost floor of the Teal Tower, and had hit the button leading to the highest floor. The quick scan initiated made it known to the hotel they were expected guests. It seemed like the closer they got to the top, the more nervous Scratch became.

"How long has it been since we were gunning these guys down on Tarsis?"

"Hm... fifteen years maybe. Or was it ten? Anyway, the Vespula memory is sharp as a goddamn laser cut razor. They could remember what they had for breakfast on the first day of their lives when on their deathbed." He looked to see Scratch groan. "Yeah, tough if you think they were going to forget our time in the Galactic Army."

The sound of the ocean greeted them as the high-speed elevator reached the top and let them off into the floor. Immediately they were greeted with two Vespula guards that met them with cold glares.

"Oh yeah, they remember us." Tanner said under his breath.

The wasp men stood upright, with two legs and used their abdomen with a large stinger as a third point to balance from. Four arms could be found on their thin torso to help them accomplish a variety of things. This torso also supported their translucent wings that helped them take to the sky. And since they had very little body mass around the midsection, it allowed them to move extremely fast when off the ground. Tanner couldn't help but make direct contact with the highly developed eyes. They could be compared to humans, only slightly larger with fewer color variations. However, these eyes did not eliminate the need for the two antennae on the head that constantly twitched and moved. It was well known, at least to Tanner, how keen the Vespula senses were.

Scratch could care less on how the Vespula looked, because his view was centered on the large weapons they carried. This weapon was commonly compared to an 21st century Gatling gun, because of the similar design and fire rate. The gold barrels were not aligned straight, but were instead twisted to a spiral pattern. It was a weapon with four different triggers, two on top and two on bottom; all used to fire the Vespula Autorifle. Tanner couldn't help but grin looking at it.

"Hadn't changed a bit." He realized.

"Late." One Vespula said angrily.

"Hey, that's pretty good." Tanner laughed. "You managed to pronounce all the letters without royally screwing them up. Good job. Come a long way from that damn buzzing sound you'd all make a long time ago."

There was a long silence they simply stared at each other.

"Well enough of this crap, we wanna talk to your queen. Ok?"

Tanner was talking to them like they were five years old. Scratch was turning white. But eventually one of them turned and began to lead the two down the extravagantly decorated hallway. Paintings from human and otherworldly artists covered most the walls, and simply moving down the hallway revealed chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. They weren't needed, but it was added to make the floor more presentable. It also contained glass tables and specially designed chairs to accommodate all sorts of differently shaped guests. Of course, it was hard to make much else out, because the entire floor was swarming with Vespula. They hard turned it into a hive.

Nearly every single Vespula they passed made one glance at Tanner, if not a full out stare. It seemed like every one of them knew the humans passing by, but not for any reason that could be described as positive. No, it was more of a fear, and Scratch could sense it. They watched Tanner because they weren't sure what he would do, and if he did pull something, they'd have to be faster than he was. This whole process had taken up so much of Scratch's attention, he hardly noticed when they had finally entered the master bedroom, where the Vespula queen sat with her back to them.

"Your highness... **he** is here."

"Tanner Sebester... My children and I have not forgotten you."

The Vespula queen did not even glance over her shoulder as she said his name. She shivered and made a gesture with her two left arms to come closer. All the times Tanner had fought against the Vespula, he had never gotten this close to the queen before. The stories he had heard did not do the matriarch justice. The abdomen of the queen was much larger than the normal Vespula in order to make room for the reproductive and egg laying organs. Her wings were also much broader to accommodate the extra weight. She had also developed dorsal spines that ran in-between the wings and along the abdomen.

"Damn," Tanner whistled. "I always thought your stinger would be longer. Guess I owe Chester that 100 credits now."

No one was amused by his joke, not even Scratch.

"What is this meeting about, Tanner Sebester? Have you finally decided to stop your little auction and give me the Zonagen?"

"No, that wouldn't be any fun." Tanner answered, in a dark and sarcastic manner. "What I came to do... is tell you about a couple problems of ours." He dropped the bucket in the middle of the room.

The large plunk caused by the dropping bucket made the Vespula queen turn completely around to see what was inside. Needless to say, it caused her to raise an eye.

"Ash?"

"Ridley torched two of my boys while they were leaving a restaurant- that's them in the bucket. He works for the Space Pirates just incase you haven't heard of them over in your side of the universe."

"Do you think me stupid Tanner Sebester? Whoever has not heard of the Pirates Space are conceited fools."

"Good, nice to know we're on the same page." Tanner moved toward the bed, and the four guards stationed in the room did likewise. "You see, Scratch just informed me that Samus Aran just showed up as well. Now... one of them has to go, or by the time we get any deal set up we'll all be dead or arrested."

"Quite a situation for you. However, it has nothing to do with the Vespula. The Pirates Space have currently been very occupied with the Federation Galactic. I do not wish to warrant their attention."

Tanner laughed. He had expected such an answer. No one wanted to have a visit from the Space Pirates if they were smart, no matter what kind of reward was at the end of the tunnel. But this wasn't the end of the conversation.

"What about the bounty hunter?" Tanner grinned.

The Vespula queen's four hands balled up into angry fists. Scratch backed up toward the door, even though he couldn't escape with two more guards on the other side.

"Who would not want to get even with the Chozo devil, Aran Samus?" The queen hissed as if mentioning Samus was a painful act. "She has put many of my children to death."

"Peachy. Thought you'd say that. So I brought you a present. Think of it as a free sample."

The queen stood up from her bed and walked around to the side where Tanner stood. He had moved back to the bucket and kicked it over so the ash spilled out onto the floor. A round device rolled out and he picked it up quickly. This was Scratch's cue to step up and start talking.

"It's a... Zonagen enhanced bomb or uh... a Zonagen Bomb to put simply." Scratch explained, his mouth going a million miles per hour.

"It's more than enough to kill Aran. And you'll get your free Zonagen demonstration. Since you know, you think it's a load of crap."

"I said nothing of the sort."

"That's what's funny about the eyes. Window to soul, or so the saying goes."

They stood in silence, as the Vespula queen seemed to be sensing the Zonagen Bomb over with her antennae. It seemed like she was losing interest, and Tanner spoke up again.

"Black Hole downstairs just kicked dirt in my face. So if you want to sway some of my favor in your direction. I suggest you take this opportunity. We might be able to take a couple zeroes off the final figure."

The queen made a motion to her four guards, and they stepped up to carefully receive the bomb. Tanner let go of it gently as if passing of a child of his or an expensive vase. The guards were quick to take it into the next room and any place far away from their queen. She looked toward Tanner and observed the smirk on his face, it had gotten bigger.

"Enjoy it."

----------------------------------------

It had been not to long since Samus ran into the Serpent Reef Hotel to chase after Scratch. She soon discovered that the message from Graves was no lie, and returned to her ship to receive the call on secure channels. As the man in green had implied, Graves was very angry.

"What the hell do you think you are doing Aran? Why are you on Big Blue?" Graves was shouting.

"You talked with Victoria Maitlin correct? She said Tanner came here after abandoning Sand Trap."

"Hell, Maitlin..." Graves muttered as if it was a bad memory. "She hasn't recovered from the encounter with Phantoon. Our Psychological check says she's a mess."

This was no surprise to Samus.

"Of course, you knew she'd never recover." He realized.

"No one ever forgets Phantoon." Samus admitted. "He makes sure the fear stays well after he leaves."

"Humph, well, whatever reason you're there. Take into account you're not on a desolate planet with miles of terrain to destroy. You're on a major population world with countless Federation inhabitants. If your weapon even misfires-"

"Adam has made that point quite clear." Samus interrupted. "I saw Sylus Thompson in the Serpent Reef. Tanner is here. What he plans to do with Zonagen I'm still trying to figure out. He's either trying to find another system to back him, or he's trying to move the weapon well out of Federation space."

Graves paused and turned to look at something off screen. He removed his hat and looked back towards Samus.

"Zonagen is not to get off Big Blue. Do you understand?"

"More than you could possibly understand. Samus out."

The transmission ended as the ship became quiet. Samus spun around in her chair to look about the cockpit to realize something.

"Adam, where did they go?"

Adam needed no explanation of who "they" referred to.

"The creatures apparently wanted to stretch their legs and left the ship while you were exploring the city. There's no need to worry, they're quite close. They haven't left the spaceport."

"Strange." Samus thought aloud.

It was then she could hear a metallic plink. Something had hit the outside of her ship, and she moved to look out the cockpit window to see if there was something or someone moving around. The sound could well have been caused by the Dacholas and Etecoons wanting to get back in the ship. However, all she could see was the flutter of translucent wings. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Samus! A foreign device has been attached to the hull! I couldn't sense it until it's activation. It's nothing listed in the databanks!"

"Adam! Initiate emergency download of consciousness into the databanks!"

"Complete. Now get out of there Samus!"

Samus pressed a couple of buttons on her arm cannon and activated a beam down. Now under the ship, she could see a round blue device with flashing lights stuck tightly to the hull of her ship. It looked like a bomb, but something was moving inside it that was nothing like she had seen before. When she tried to step away, the lights went red and initiated bomb detonation. There was a flash, except it was not bright. In fact, it had seemingly sucked the light out of the area, and when it dissipated a fluid black substance began to pour out of the bomb.

It almost seemed to be alive as tentacles formed and began to wrap around the ship and the landing gear. Some of the tentacles reached out to Samus as she moved to run away. A second blast came when the whole ship was overtaken by the black substance. The explosion was on par with the explosion that destroyed Zebes the first time, only miniaturized into the area around her ship without expanding. She was tossed clear of the blast area and didn't stop until hitting a ship parked near by. Supply crates on the ground were also thrown and any sort of glass compound making up the cockpit window of neighboring ships were blown into millions of tiny fragments.

And when the bomb was done exploding, the damage was far from over with.

Samus's suit began to malfunction in ways she had never seen it act before. Her visors switched manically, hurting her eyes with the sensory overload. The arm cannon on her suit sparked and almost threatened to self-destruct. The alternate functions of her suit collected over the many missions switched on an off, from functional to beyond repair. It was only the few moments when her visors stopped shorting out could she tell a powerful radiation had saturated the area, wrecking havoc with anything and everything. The insane nature of her suit's malfunctions could be attributed to the fact half of it was heavily affected by Metroid DNA. It was probably her saving grace as the chaotic system failures slowly came to a halt and everything went black.

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: After the Bomb


	7. Chapter 7: After the Bomb

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 7: After the Bomb

Samus opened her eyes with a start. Smoke had begun to leak into her suit, due a crack that had formed on her visor. Her eyes stung and her vision had become blurry. When she pushed herself up off the ground, the chaos of the area came into focus. The explosion had caused the entire room to go up in flames, and the emergency devices designed to stop this had been disabled by the Zonagen radiation. A crater sat in the area where her ship had been parked, and any search for debris was useless. It had been vaporized. But there was plenty of destruction, as the surrounding ships had been reduced to scrap metal by the blast radius. Through all the sounds of crackling flames, hissing sparks, and groaning metal, a loud buzzing was somewhere off in the distance. It was the Vespula's natural dialect. The only parts Samus could make out were the last few.

"Find the body. It is said this hunter is not so easily slain. She is not dead until her head rests in our queen's arms."

"Of course... For the queen's glory!"

Samus rose to her feet and began to stumble around to try and regain her balance. It wasn't happening, and forced her to grab onto a fallen support beam. Her eyes stung so badly... but what she saw through the smoke was a blur in the shape of a Vespula, armed with what could only be their Autorifle. This Vespula turned toward her and began to creep forward, she raised her arm cannon but the damage it had taken could be made out clearly. There was no way it was going to fire in her weakened condition. Her entire suit needed more energy. During her concentration on the condition of her Fusion Suit, a burst of flame caused her to stumble backwards into the hull of a wrecked spaceship. The noise was more than enough to attract the approaching Vespula.

The Autorifle revved up next and sounded like jackhammer. You could hear it a mile away as they said, but this did not help Samus in her weakened condition. When the Vespula soldier finally rounded the support beam, his antennae twitched in eagerness, and his mouth pincers drew back as if it was a smile.

"You..." He hissed.

The sight of the fully-grown Vespula began to nurture a craving inside of Samus. It had been there before, around the time she had woken up. But now it was stronger than ever, and she couldn't help but leap forth with strength she didn't know she had left. The Vespula tried to fire, managing to squeeze one or two rounds off but missing completely as the hunter overtook him and grabbed his neck. This neck grab turned into a headlock. The clean snap of a wing breaking could be heard next as Samus brought him to the ground and pinned him to the floor.

She found it surprising the creature did not put up more a fight, but soon found out why. The Fusion suit had begun to drain the Vespula's energy like a Metroid. The suit's systems reacted immediately, returning power and restarting abilities one after another. The more energy she took out of the Vespula, the more her senses began to sharpen up. The visor's crack soon disappeared as the two pieces of glass fused together like they were webbing. Her eyes no longer hurt like they did, and the smoke didn't seem as thick anymore. Any other damages the suit had taken during the Zonagen blast had disappeared completely. She only let go when her arm cannon ceased to spark and glimmered like it was brand new.

The sensation was nearly identical to the feeling when absorbing the X parasites, except this time, she had absorbed the life energy out of an organism directly. It was so quick and similar to the way Metroids sucked the life out of their prey after pouncing on them.

"Like... the instincts of a Metroid..." Samus stuttered.

This crave... It could only remind her of the time the Metroid larva made a desperate last second leap at Mother Brain after taking many critical hits. The only difference was that she actually managed to acquire that life saving drain. Her view shifted to the Vespula on the floor. It exhibited all the traits of a Metroid victim, becoming shriveled, gray, and lifeless. As if to confirm her senses, she gave it a tap with her foot and caused the entire creature to disintegrate. Another Vespula soldier that had witnessed the whole event from behind became overcome by rage.

"Kill the monster!"

Without hesitating, Samus spun around and kneeled before firing off her ice beam. The Vespula had no chance and uttered a cry of pain before becoming completely frozen. The hunter fired again to make it final, and shattered the frozen wasp creature. She did not have much time to relax when a hail of lasers came from a high-flying attacker. It wasn't hard for the Vespula soldier to lose track of Samus through the smoke, flame, and wreckage dotting the hangar. The only thing that could be made out from above was the crater where Samus's ship had been and the flaming debris of other ships unfortunate enough to be too close to the final blast.

He studied the area carefully, looking for her. It was before a missile came rocketing out of one of the smoke clouds and nailed him in the back. The explosion incinerated his wings and sent him plummeting into a pile of jagged metal. The sound of the exoskeleton cracking on the pointed surface brought over two more Vespula soldiers with their Autorifles already on full. No amount of dodging or evasion would avoid the wall of lasers, there were simply too many coming at once And they managed to hit Samus a couple of times before she retreated behind a severed wing of another spaceship.

It sounded like a roar as the withering fire of the Vespula Autorifles began to tear away at the wing. The sound only increased as they approached, using their pounding fire to keep Samus down. They were almost on top of her position when a massive explosion came from underneath the wing and sent it flying into the air. The blast also tossed the two Vespula and easily knocked the weapons out of their hands. Samus came out of her Morph Ball and observed the damage caused by her Power Bomb. Needless to say, the area was wrecked enough, and her bomb made no additional damage. It only tossed a piece of junk disposed of the two Vespula who were now sprawled out across the ground unconscious. Without the wing in the way, they would have been incinerated.

She proceeded through the wreckage of the area carefully, making sure there were no more unpleasant surprises. When she used the exit, she was relieved to find the explosion did not damage the access hallway. It gradually headed upwards toward the lifts that would lead to the surface and the landing platform. But escape was not the dominant concern. Her worry had shifted to the creatures that Adam reported were somewhere around. Hopefully, the Vespula did not kill them out of spite.

There was a rest point before the last stretch to the lifts. It was filled with vending machines and stacks of flyers. Samus stopped here to look around thinking maybe the Etecoons curiosity had gotten them to experiment with the machines. But there was no trace of them. Even still, there was someone approaching from the direction of the lifts. The footsteps echoed down the abandoned hallway.

"You are every bit as nightmarish as my queen said you were... Aran Samus. Even death is afraid of you."

A Vespula appeared, but was different from the others Samus engaged in the hangar. This one wore a red sash along with armor to cover the upper body. He was the leader of the unit Samus had just eliminated.

"Where's Tanner?" Samus asked.

"I have not heard such a name. It has no bearing on our mission. You must pay for the execution of our fellow brothers and sisters."

"That was bomb was laced with Zonagen, and Tanner is too ruthless to have let you steal it from him. So what are you doing with it?" Samus readied her arm cannon. "I won't ask again."

The commander said nothing more and drew his weapons. It was not the large and heavy Autorifle his subordinates used, it was the Vespula Buckler, their preferred pistol. It was known for it's loud discharge and deadly accuracy. Not very threatening on it's own, but the Vespula were in the habit of using all of their arms in a fight and the commander was no different. Now, with four pistols ready to fire, the hallway became ablaze with blaster fire as they went at it. This commander took to the air and used the agility provided by his wings to avoid the ice beam fire.

In Samus's career of bounty hunting, she had never taken on any Vespula above the rank of soldier. To face a commander was a different experience in itself, and soon switched her arm cannon to plasma beam. Switching beam weapons in the middle of the battle was enough to catch the commander off guard, as the searing beam moved like lightning and clipped him in the wing. This melted the thin wing on contact, and ruined the balance needed to stay in the air.

The Vespula commander hit the ground and rolled before standing back up and resuming his blaster fire. This move cost him his upper and lower right arm. Samus was relentless with her plasma attack and burned them clean off. There was no profuse bleeding since the heat-sealed the wound. A wild and panicked screech escaped the commander as he went to grab his now non-existent right arms. This move was all Samus needed to step foward and knock the Vespula to the ground before disarming him.

"Fsssssssssss!" The Vespula commander hissed in pain. "Chozo Devil!"

"Now, where did you get the Zonagen? From Tanner? Why are you protecting him?"

"Those who serve our queen are our allies." The commander spat. "For her glory..."

"You still have a chance to live. Tell me. Where is he?"

The commander made perfect eye contact with Samus as he grunted and arched his back. The next thing she knew, he was flopping to the ground lifeless. The commander had used his remaining arms to break off his stinger, and let loose most of his vital organs. They were on the floor now, as he bled out until death.

"Vespula Suicide..."

A stampede heading from the lifts made her turn and see an army of Federation Police approach. All of them were outfitted in the heavy combat suits. They were quick to surround Samus as Big Blue Firefighters came in shortly afterward. Some of them stutter stepped upon seeing the gruesome Vespula corpse but kept on. The heavy pressurized equipment had to be used soon before they tired out and couldn't lug it anymore. It would be light enough once they discharged it over the flames.

"What's going on here? Explain yourself!" An Police officer asked.

"I was attacked and I defended myself. These Vespula tried to kill me. They destroyed my ship and ruined the rest of the hangar."

One of the officers looked to see the pool gathering under the dead Vespula and shook his head.

"It's just that easy to you, isn't it?"

"No, it's not." Samus told them. "But it answers your question doesn't it?"

"Damn man. Vespula Suicide! Hell... they always make such a goddamn mess."

"Come on! We don't have time for this!" One officer told the others. "We need to catch up with the Firefighters! And you Aran! You need to report to the surface immediately, you can keep those creatures we found hanging around outside company."

Samus smiled a bit knowing the companions she picked up from the B.S.L. had made it out fine and walked off. The high-speed lifts made the trip to the surface fast and she was stepping out into the morning light of Big Blue's sun soon enough. Two steps out of the spaceport and she could see the mob of people and reporters held back by the emergency ships and Federation cruisers. The floating cameras looked dormant, but she could tell they were taking millions upon millions of pictures as she left the spaceport.

Just as the officer had said before, there were a group of officers watching the Etecoon trio and the Dachola mother and baby. They couldn't keep the creatures corralled for long as they broke free upon seeing Samus and rushed toward her. It wasn't so much an expression of seeing she was fine, it was more of a way of getting out of the clutches of the strange officer creatures that found them earlier.

While this was happening, Samus could see a couple soldiers from Black Hole among the crowd. They didn't stay long, just enough to see her walk out in one piece and then left. They were not the center of attention anyway. The cameras were all concentrated on Samus Aran. The famous bounty hunter still making a riot wherever she went. Reporters yelled out futility to get a story or any details surrounding the great explosion that had caused the floating city's foundations to shake. Samus was merely looking at the cameras, hoping that Tanner was watching.

* * *

"Boris? Where are you right now?"

Boris did a quick look of the area around him while clapping a hand over his portable phone. He had always wanted to visit the well-known gambling district of Big Blue. The finest resort casinos all in a line, under the sea of course. Tanner had told him not to go, but with all the excitement with the Vespula and the reports on TV, he figured Samus wouldn't have time to pick him out of a crowd and chase him down.

"South Blue Street." Boris lied while moving into an area with less dinging slot machines

Tanner was quiet, almost confirming he knew better.

"How many times have I told you to lay low? You're gonna end up in the gutter walkin' where you don't belong. This is like the third time you've been out of position."

Boris moved to an elevator to head toward the surface lounge. He remembered reading it had a great view of the East Blue Ocean. Lucky for him no one else got on, and the glass elevator was empty. He could talk as loud as he could and not have to worry about people over hearing the conversation.

"Tch. Samus Aran just survived a Zonagen attack. Not to mention she'll be filling out paperwork until the sun burns out. You know how Federation Police are like. They keep records better than they do the peace."

"I wasn't talking about Samus Aran. Incase you haven't heard, we got more than a bounty hunter on our asses. Don't tell me you forgot Stan and Whiskey. I thought ashes in a bucket were a good enough example for you."

"Like Ridley is gonna break into a casino in broad daylight. Big Blue would be locked down in minutes."

"No they won't. Big Blue is an intergalactic resort planet. They'd make too many otherworldly bureaucrats angry by ruining their vacation." Tanner laughed. "The Galactic Federation is too concerned about keeping appearances to know what's good for them. Ridley could burn down a whole building and they wouldn't do anything but advise a warning."

The smirk on Boris's face weakened.

"Look, you just best get your ass back to the warehouse. We're moving all our stuff to the docks tomorrow morning. All hands on deck, you understand?"

"Yeah Tanner, I'll be there. You can cut the tough military commander bull. I get you ok?"

A cruel laugh came from Tanner's end.

"Sure. Whatever, loser."

The conversation ended, and Boris moved to slide his phone back into his jacket pocket. However, when he reached back to open his jacket up, he could feel the back of his arm make contact with some cold slimy substance. Immediately he brought his into view and scraped some of the crap off of him. Colorless, but freezing cold. He turned to investigate the source and nearly jumped out of his skin when realizing Phantoon was right next to him. The ghost was too big for the elevator car, but its body simply went right through any walls and ceilings, floating so his closed mouth was at Boris's eye level.

"Greetings to you... Boris Kail."

And that's when the power went off and brought the car to a dead stop. Boris went for his old Galactic Army pistol, but became seized by Phantoon's tentacles before uttering a sound. Still, he managed to fire off one round that went straight up and broke one of the ceiling light panels. The spark enabled him to see Phantoon one last time before his eyes were covered. The tentacles were tightening around his head, as if trying to squeeze his brain out.

"No, no words are required. We wouldn't want you to waste your time trying to recall all the details we need. Instead... Mother Brain will do the honors for you." Phantoon pressed a couple of buttons on the phone to get Boris's attention, it was an example. "What I am going to do is link you directly to her subconscious. It's like... a long distance call, using brainwaves. It's quite interesting, if I do say so myself."

Boris mumbled a bit, smothered by the tentacles.

"You don't understand? Why pick you and not Tanner? Ridley has special plans for your leader." Phantoon then paused to comment. "Such a primitive mind after all... it will take seconds for Mother Brain to sort through you."

Phantoon opened his mouth to show his eyes. They were rolled back and twitched uncontrollably... it had begun.

"Hah ha ha. Prepare yourself! You are about to touch the mind of a god!"

It was at this moment Boris could feel himself becoming distant from Big Blue. He was soaring past many different planets, before coming across a ship. It was as if he had become more aware of everything around him. He wondered for a minute if this is what it was like to be psychic. But any hope or positive feeling he could have had was suddenly crushed under the presence of something else. Something he couldn't make out. There was too much going on. It was like tuning the radio station to every channel at once and turning the volume to full.

It was gibberish, overwhelming and now overpowering gibberish. His brain began to become warm, soon enough it was on fire. It was as if an overload was occurring. Whatever he was interacting with now was too complex for his mind to handle. The pain was very noticeable now, and it only grew and grew and grew. He lost his definition of silence, there were on such words now. Then in a split second, he could see Mother Brain in a environmentally sealed glass jar, with rivers of wires branching away from it. Then he felt nothing and went limp in Phantoon's grip.

The elevator turned back on, and continued toward the surface. The delay had caused a crowd to gather. When the doors opened up, they screamed and reeled back in terror. Boris was slumped up against the wall, staring off into the distance, wide eyed. There was nothing left in his mind to be found. It was burned out. And even though his left eye was shoved in his mouth...

You could still tell he was devoid of feeling as if it had been sucked out of him.

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Special Delivery


	8. Chapter 8: Special Delivery

**Note: Chapter review and editing thanks to "Pushing Metroid Boundaries**

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 8: Special Delivery

"Who do we have today Barnes?"

"It's that man from the elevator, you know... The one with the... _eyeball_."

"Oh? I heard about him on the news. I've wanted to carve into this one." There was a snap of rubber gloves being put on. "Let's get started shall we?"

The three coroners moved up to the metal slab and looked over their newest arrival. It was a muscular, middle aged man wearing a blue delivery uniform. It was undisturbed except for the blood that had covered the front of it. One could barely make out the emblem of a dolphin on the chest. Blood could also be found on the hands and under the fingernails, suggesting the wound near the face was self-inflicted. This wound was the center of attention for the three coroners. Apparently, the man had pried his left eye out of his head, then proceeded to place it in his mouth before dying. It certainly got the attention of the examiners, because for all the years they had worked at the Big Blue Federation Precinct... they had never seen anything like it before. They moved their masked heads back and forth, simply absorbing the whole scene.

"Are we recording yet Barnes?"

The coroner known as Barnes moved over a console and pressed a button or two then gave his colleagues thumbs up.

"We're up and running."

"Ok, the date is during the Big Blue Swell Period, the seventh day right?"

"Yes correct. This is case 1120, a man found in the elevator with his left eye found in his mouth. Put on display as I see it."

The three moved forward and looked at the empty socket.

"That must have taken some dedication." The coroner then paused and let out a dry laugh. "I'm glad to finally be back in familiar territory."

"Talking about those Vespula huh Edwards?"

Edwards was on the left side of the table, and looked over his shoulder to the six or so Vespula corpses pulled from the spaceport explosion. They were neatly lined up on tables of their own and had already been cleaned and examined. The three found there wasn't much left after Samus Aran was through with them. Still, none of them ever liked digging into Vespula corpses. Breaking the exoskeleton was hard enough, and the job didn't get any easier when they had to swim through the haphazard internal organs. Yes, they could all agree that examining a human was a welcome break.

"Ok, let's run an ID check before continuing. Remember people, protocol."

Barnes nodded his head and moved back over to the console. He flipped a couple more switches and began a scan of the man's face. A search immediately began through the Federation Databanks. While that ran, they all began to concentrate on the eyeball in the mouth.

"Let's remove it for further observation."

The last corner, who had been mostly quiet the whole time removed a set of medical tongs and carefully went in to grasp the eye without crushing it. He pulled, and it failed to move. Trying harder only brought more frustration as Edwards moved in to take over.

"Give me that thing." He snapped. "Hm. it's like it's stuck in there..."

"You won't get it out that way. The nerves are wrapped around the tongue." Someone said. "It's going to take a knife."

The three coroners jumped, and looked to see Samus Aran standing in the hatchway. She had her free hand on her hip, and let the arm cannon hang at her side.

"Aran? What the hell are you doing here?"

She said nothing, but turned to look at the ID scan that was going about. It had stopped on an individual known as Boris Kail. It listed his stats, such as weight and height and other data, but when it got down to occupation and place of residence. A red blinking flag showed up. The three coroners gave each other uncomfortable glances. They could tell, even though the masks they wore hid their facial expressions. The eyes said it all.

"A red flag?"

Samus moved forward to the table and began to look Boris's body over. They moved to stop her, but Barnes had looked further down the file.

"Uh. It says here that man relates to a mission she's on. Jurisdiction is all hers."

"By who's order?" Edwards nearly yelled.

"General Graves it says."

There was silence as Edwards and the silent coroner backed off. They just watched as she began to walk around the table, pausing every once and awhile to observe Boris. She seemed to be particularly interested with the logo on the chest. But as hard as you could look at it, there was too much blood to see it clearly.

"So, observing your work eh?" Edwards spoke up. "Haven't you done enough damage? We're still processing the last six you worked on."

He thumbed toward the Vespula behind them.

"There wasn't much up for discussion." Samus explained calmly. "They were out to kill me."

"Humph, one can only wonder why." Edwards snickered.

Despite the hostility, Samus continued to focus on Boris's body.

"Have any of you seen this logo before?"

She pointed to the dolphin on the chest. Barnes stepped forward and nodded.

"It's the-"

"Don't answer that Barnes." Edwards interrupted. "Whatever she's involved in, it's a sure bet it's going to pertain to a lot of sensitive information. Are you absolutely sure you want to be involved?"

Through the silence, you could still feel the conflict of interests going on with Barnes. He wanted to help, but he had a superior to deal with as well. Samus just kept her focus on Boris's wounds and the outfit he was wearing.

"Dolphinhead." Barnes answered suddenly. "It's the Dolphinhead delivery company. They have a warehouse down the street from that spaceport you were at."

Edwards didn't say anything. He just turned around pretended he didn't hear a thing. Finally, Samus looked up from the corpse on the table and turned to Barnes. She nodded and then left.

* * *

Tanner stood outside a Dolphinhead warehouse and looked at his watch. Boris was late, and didn't look like he was going to show up anytime soon. He shifted his view impatiently up and down the street, and sometimes paused to glance upwards at the nearby Serpent Reef Hotel and it's teal tower where the Vespula were staying. Even though he paced, he didn't stray too far from a large garage door that was slightly ajar. You had to duck to get under, and that's just what Scratch did when he came out to find his boss moving back and forth.

"Hey Seb! What are you waiting for man? Boris isn't gonna show! We just saw the news, he was found in an elevator with one of his eyeballs shoved in his mouth!"

This spurred a laugh from Sebester Tanner, as he put his hands in his pockets and grinned. He laughed again upon turning his back to Scratch and began to watch the traffic go by.

"And I thought he'd be in a gutter by now..."

This made Scratch stutter and take a couple steps back, but he quickly recovered.

"Tanner, it's Boris! He's dead! Come on-"

"Shut up loser! Boris was an insubordinate moron who got what was coming to him! Reckless, disobeying direct orders, hell... he changed. I have no pity for people like that." Tanner snorted. "Glad we finally lost some dead weight..."

"... Who's gonna drive the lead truck?"

"Tch. I will. Come on, let's go."

When Tanner turned around, he looked to see Scratch frozen in position. He was pointing to something down the street. Slowly, he moved his gaze in the direction the finger was pointing. People had begun to part as someone was hurrying their way toward them. Tanner couldn't make anyone out through the mass of people, but he figured Scratch had spotted something before losing sight. Then, a figure leapt from the crowd and did a somersault until landing right at his feet.

"Sebester Tanner! Don't even twitch!" Samus shouted.

People from across the street began to stop and watch as the bounty hunter's arm cannon was mere inches from Tanner's chest. Scratch began to look toward the garage door, but was so shook up from a second encounter with Samus that he didn't move. The reaction from his boss was one of someone who didn't care. Head back, eyes narrowed, arms crossed as if it was a mere inconvenience.

"Well, well... It's Samus Aran. I always wanted to meet you. You know, you an Zonagen have a lot in common. After all, it's not everyday someone meets the Chozo's greatest biological weapon. You still killing everything that ever disagreed with them?"

Samus deflected Tanner's statement and tried to stay on track.

"Where is it?" She asked strongly, while they were on the subject.

Oh, Tanner wanted to respond. He wasn't going to answer her question, but it was going to a response none the less. But he barely got his mouth moving when Chester came outside to see what was keeping them. The bearded man did a double take upon seeing his leader staring down Samus's arm cannon.

"Boss!"

"Stay right there Chester! Just don't even think while we're out here." Tanner snapped, then turned back to Samus. "We're just talkin'."

"You're about to give up the Zonagen. Is it in that warehouse?"

"How does it feel to be out of your element? No more abandoned planets to blow up. Just a highly populated world, where the tiniest stray rocket could kill hundreds."

"You have no more time to play traitor. The Space Pirates are right on your tail." Samus warned. "You can't outrun them, and they won't show any mercy."

"Good, I like it that way." Tanner spat. "It would refreshing really. No more dehumanizing trials to go to. No more months and months of questioning just to figure out something everyone knew in the first place."

It seemed like time had come to a stop. Traffic had almost halted as some people were trying to watch the whole scene from their car. The other side of the street was packed full of onlookers, and everyone just waited for something to happen. They were captivated by the scene.

"Why haven't you shot me yet? Come on. I wanna see some blood and guts." He then paused and narrowed his eyes. "Graves gave a refusal to terminate Sand Trap personnel, didn't he? It's just like him.

Samus was about ready to freeze Tanner solid when a blur swooped down and snatched up Chester within the blink of an eye. Everyone stood dumbstruck, their senses had picked up the whole thing, but their brains were struggling to process. Tanner and Samus were the first to realize what had happened, and exchanged surprised glances. Frightened screaming came next a little ways down the street, as Chester fell from the sky and landed smack dab on someone's car, shattering all the glass and rolling to the street. A familiar shadow began to dart behind a building.

"Ridley..." Tanner hissed.

Samus switched her priorities in an instant, knowing Ridley was far more capable of slaying hundreds within the blink of an eye and turned her back to Tanner and Scratch. These two ducked back inside without wasting a second as she began to scan the skies when Ridley made another pass. She was confused, usually she could feel Ridley's prescience. Whenever he was near her, there was a feeling impossible to escape, as every muscle in her body tensed up and her pulse pounded. But this time, there was no such reactions, not even as Ridley swooped down and grabbed Chester. There was none. She moved closer to the entrance of the warehouse, with a strange feeling of vulnerability on the rise.

Soon something new popped up, as an electric whine began to emanate from the garage door. It was quiet at first, and Samus almost didn't hear it. But as it grew louder, it became impossible to ignore. She almost didn't recognize what it was fast enough, as she barely avoided getting hit by a huge antigravity semi. The flat end truck would have smashed Samus nicely if it had hit her. The garage door was decimated as it roared away from the warehouse with Tanner behind the wheel and Scratch in the passenger seat. He gave her a farewell salute as she fired her ice beam, unsuccessful in stopping it. And when she ran to the other side, more trucks began to exit.

They were moving too fast to be scanned, but it was obvious Tanner's men were driving them. None of them were afraid to T-bone vehicles in their way and push them to the side as they fought their way to alternate streets and routes. Some flipped cars completely over while forcing their way through the heavy traffic to an open road. Samus was helpless to stop any of them, and simply avoided getting plastered. Ridley appeared from out behind one of the skyscrapers and began to fly after Tanner, roaring his horrible screech as he went.

It was chaos in a quick minute, and it all happened before most people could make sense of it.

The eight trucks were charging through the heart of downtown Neptune and they constantly split up and took seemingly random directions. It was only when they reached the highway, did the eight come back together in astounding coordination. Tanner was leading the pack now, continuing to steamroll any one stupid enough to get in his way. He could do it too; the antigravity technology tossed out the old notions that trucks with large trailers were slow, clumsy vehicles. On the contrary, it allowed him to stop on a dime and easily maneuver the weight and size of the semi through traffic.

It didn't seem like anyone was going to stop them either. The Big Blue Central Traffic Control was isolating the highway to ensure no one else went head on with the large trucks, and despite the computer system on their sides it would take quite some time due to how busy the city was. Then there was the damage the trucks had caused on their route to the highway, it would take Big Blue's full Police force to clean up and secure the mess they had made. The only ones in pursuit of them now were Ridley and Samus. The thought of getting caught by either provided little comfort.

Ridley reached the convoy of trucks first due to his broad wings and wicked reflexes. Weaving back and forth around the buildings was child's play to him, and now that they had reached the highway there was nothing keeping him behind now. He positioned himself right above Tanner's truck and opened his razor sharp claws and talons. In the same speed he had used to snatch up Chester, he dove towards the truck. The two men behind Tanner could hardly believe their eyes as Ridley landed on the trailer and began to make his way forward.

Scratch and Tanner soon felt the whole truck shake like an earthquake was going on right under them. The truck shook so much that they nearly lost control of the whole thing. When it was over, Tanner had already begun to use the cameras on the dash to see what had happened.

"Talk to us guys, what just happened?" Scratch asked frantically.

"#$%! Ridley just landed on ya; he's headed right toward the cab!"

"Oh is that so?" Tanner laughed.

He then leaned out the window and looked back toward the trailer with his fist waving in the wind.

"C'mon! I'm gonna turn you into dog meat Ridley!" He cried.

The closer Ridley got to the front, the more Tanner began to swerve. But even he could see it was no use. Ridley had easily dug his claws into the metal frame of the trailer and seemed like he was glued on. This angered Tanner to no end as he took out a blaster pistol and fired on the Space Dragon with one hand still on the wheel. The shots made their mark, but it did nothing but make Ridley retaliate with a fireball. This blew out the glass and melted the side mirror, and caused the truck to dart sharply to the right as Tanner tried to shield his face from the shards of glass.

"Mother of #$% God! I'm gonna kill that crooked neck son of a bitch!"

He had leaned out to take another shot, but his attention was caught by a white blur, speeding toward him along the side of the road. It was hypnotizing. The distraction was enough for Ridley to nearly incinerate his hand with another blast of flame. Tanner's blaster was destroyed and the skin on his hand began to fall away. Scratch grabbed hold of the wheel as his leader cursed up a storm and struggled to fight the pain, the pain that was consuming his left arm.

During the time Scratch had the wheel, he also saw the white blur and instantly knew who it was. Samus Aran with her Speed Booster ability pushed to the maximum. The bounty hunter had caught up with their convoy, and was now running right up along side them. Ridley began to spit a barrage of flame at Samus, but missed as she leapt up and flew through the air until landing somewhere behind him. Now she was on the trailer, with her arm cannon trained on Ridley's back.

"That's right Ridley, I'm here!" Samus declared.

There was a harsh shaking as Scratch had driven right through a bush in the median. This was when Ridley drew his head back and launched a flamethrower in Samus's direction. The heat from the fire melted the top of the truck, and would incinerate anything in it's way. But she didn't wait around for the attack, and jumped off the back of the truck with an acrobatic spin. Tanner could see it due to the cameras and watched intently, still trying to bear the pain due to Ridley's fire attack.

When she landed, it was feet first on the passenger window of the truck behind Tanner's. It was enough for her to push off and launch herself back toward the truck. Ridley had turned his attention back toward Tanner and failed to notice Samus's return. She didn't waste the opportunity and fired repeatedly, driving ice cold blast after ice-cold blast into his back. The strike caused the dragon to arch his back and let out a furious cry, one of anger more than pain. He was standing straight up now, leaving a convent space for Samus to roll under.

Samus did just that, and raised her arm cannon to hit Ridley square in the face once on the other side. But it was not to be, as Ridley suddenly brought his arms forward and slapped her down. She would have slid off the front if he did not spring forward and pin her down. He was seething with anger, showing his teeth, and allowing his ultra hot saliva to drip freely from his mouth. Any section of the truck touched by this was burned as if acid was there. His next fiery attack was about to clear his snout when the truck came to a screeching halt and threw both of them clear of the trailer.

Tanner had slammed on the breaks. He couldn't help but smile when both Ridley and Samus crashed into the highway and rolled several times. The seven trucks cruised on by without stopping. They had their appointed destination and had been ordered to move on ahead. Now it was just Tanner's truck, sitting still in the middle of the highway while Ridley and Samus lay on the ground unmoving. Tanner himself gripped the wheel while shoving his wounded hand under his good arm.

"I'm gonna run them over." He said darkly, almost as if he was possessed. "I'm gonna ground them into dust."

Scratch said nothing and soon let go of the wheel. They began to charge, quickly shooting back up to the speeds where they had just been. Then, as they began to float right over Ridley, Tanner reached down to a switch and flipped it violently. The antigravity systems shut off abruptly, and the truck fell back toward the ground. However, with the momentum gained they proceeded to slide right over what they had landed on, causing sickening cracking sounds all the way. The next sound was the scraping of metal as they slid over Samus.

A loud crash signaled the end of their slide, as nothing kept the truck from the ground anymore. Tanner reached down, turned the antigravity systems back on and leaned out the window before looking back. His maneuver had rolled Samus and Ridley like they were wheels on a conveyor belt. The brutality of it made him smile. Ridley's wings looked like mutilated twigs. The Metroid webbing on Samus's was almost ripped in every place imaginable. The whole event left Scratch's mouth wide as he surveyed the damage they had caused.

"What... what are we gonna do to them now?"

"Leave em' where they are. They're made for each other." Tanner grinned, seemingly recovered from his mild psychosis. "We have a cruise to catch."

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Invitation Only


	9. Chapter 9: Invitation Only

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 9: Invitation Only

The shrine was soothingly quiet. There was the sound of running water somewhere above, but it only seemed to add to the calmness. Each wall was covered by multiple inscriptions and pictures done by Chozo hands. Although the art was flowing together around the room, each part of it seemed to focus on different Chozo figures. These figures stood from floor to ceiling in great detail, modeled in an array of poses. Shapes and sizes varied greatly, but one thing in-common was the power suit each one wore. Even a complete stranger could see the progression of the power suit worn, becoming more and more impressive. Then it stopped.

Samus remembered this room. The Chamber of the Warriors. It was on Zebes before the Space Pirates made it their base of operations. However, it didn't make sense to her, she had only seen it as a child. But here it was before her. She tried to remember what she was doing last, where she was, what was happening at the time. But it escaped her and she began to turn her attention to the shrine... and a Chozo Sage that stood in the center of it. He had his back to her and was craning his neck to stare upwards at the many portraits.

"It was a sad time when these warriors lived. We had grown so fond of technological advancement... never knowing what it was doing to our spiritual energies."

The Chozo's words seemed to echo on forever.

"That is why we never celebrated them as we do now. We were jealous of how they had grown inside, living their lives for the greater good of our race. Most could never grasp that in an eternity, but they..." The Chozo shuffled around to look toward Samus. "Realized it from the start."

"The Chozo are extinct..." Samus realized.

"On the level of corporeal existence... Yes, that is correct. But you have seen the fires of the Turned. You know that we are still..." The Chozo paused to find the right words for Samus. "Around, to put it simply."

"I was thrown from a truck... Why am I here?"

"The more you remember... the shorter our time together becomes. Dancing between life and death is the only way we could meet like this. You have grown discontent with life. We can sense it. Tell me... what do you think of your fight now that the Gelatinous Plague has been felled?"

Samus knew he was talking about the X Parasites. It was after that mission where there was no longer anyone to greet her with a "job well done" speech. That mission left a dark mark on her relationship with the Federation. And when you have a falling out with the Federation, you have a falling out with most of the galaxy.

"Do you feel as if success or failure will change anything?" The Chozo asked again.

"I don't know. If I succeed, I can no longer tell if I'll be rewarded or hanged... And I can't accomplish anything in death..."

"These warriors had the same struggle. Each victory they had, the more and more fear they caused among the ones they sought to protect. The stagnation of our spirits had made fear a necessity. And where we could not find it what we didn't know... we soon found it in the ones we had known best."

Samus slowly looked over the many pictures of Chozos in the armor she had worn so long ago. Some were covered from head to toe, some wore robes over or underneath it all.

"But we always sought to understand what we did not know. This brought understanding, and the fear could stay no longer. Hatchling... although you are hardly that anymore... the question you must ask yourself... will the ones you fight to protect understand you in time?"

There was a long pause, the shrine became distant, it was slowly bleeding away into nothingness.

"Tanner... Tanner is trying to... he can't be allowed to succeed..."

Now she could hear the roar of a truck rolling over her and the sound of it banging to the ground. Tanner's voice came next... but most of it was distorted. Eventually a small part could be made out.

We have a cruise to catch...

She opened her eyes to find she was on her back, staring straight up into a bright light. Someone was shining a bright light directly into her visor.

"Ok... ok... ok! I have a response. Aran is conscious!"

A pair of paramedics had taken up position around Samus as she lie flat on the highway. They had wanted to remove the helmet for confirmation of consciousness, but had become all to aware something might be broken underneath that suit and moving any part of her could be a bad idea. Any equipment they might have needed was nowhere to be found and the only reason why they were there at all was because of a Police Cruiser.

"What can you feel? Can you understand what I'm saying?" One medic asked.

"Jeez, where the hell is med ship?"

"It's grounded, Ridley's been reported in the area. See those police guys over there? You know, the ones cut in half? They thought he was dead, now they're the ones who are six feet under. No one wants to get shot down in that flying brick when the Space Pirate's best is in the area."

"Good God, that's just damn wonderful... The best bounty hunter in the galaxy has been crushed by a truck and we're using hand signals and flashlights! Man, if we lose her, our asses are toast for sure!"

Samus made a silent gasp. The craving experienced in the spaceport had returned, and it was more vicious than ever. The thought of reaching up and grabbing one of the medics by the neck had become an irresistible idea. Her hand moved slightly upward, but her human senses fought the urge back. She had no intention of killing a bystander. It seemed like she could keep it under control when it struck back again and this time made her squirm with anticipation.

"Whoa whoa... I have movement!"

The two medics nearly did a double take as Samus stood up and grasped her stomach as if someone had shot her there.

"Hey hey hey! Take it easy! Something might be broken!" One medic cried. "You just got run over!"

"Quick, give her something to balance on!"

"Stay away from me!" Samus demanded.

It was clear... if anyone took even the slightest step toward her... she'd drain every ounce of their energy until they were dust. The crave got worse with each moment her body didn't have the energy to keep her in good condition

"What the hell..."

"She's acting like she's going into withdraw or something!"

Samus turned to try and move away, but only found more officers around the area where Ridley had been run over. The urge was worse than when the Vespula had attacked for some reason. She was sure the damage caused by Tanner's truck couldn't have been worse than the Zonagen Bomb... but the crave was stronger than ever. Her feet clumsily took her forward the two medics who had no idea what was going on.

"Get out of here!" She said again, only this time her voice trailed off into a whisper.

An idea suddenly popped into her mind. She moved over toward one of the cruisers and smashed one of the running lights. Sparks shot out everywhere as he leaned downward and searched for wires...

"What the hell are you-"

The medic could hardly finish his sentence when Samus pulled the live wires out and clenched them in her fist. At first, her body shook as a normal electrocution would cause. But then, it stopped and the sound associated with a Metroid draining its prey began to become audible. The cruiser began to shake and shutter as its systems were losing power. The lights and the engine went first, and then finally the antigravity system letting the cruiser drop to the ground, never to take off again.

"Holy shit... Did you see that?"

"I need to sit down..." Samus muttered.

But what Samus really wanted to do, was find out just what kind of cruise Tanner was trying to catch.

The massive ship dominated the South Blue Docks. It was huge, a virtual floating city with a sleek streamlined shape. One way to describe it was an earth whale. The ship was ovular and contained and contained large fins partly for design and partly for steering purposes. It was a metallic white color, sure to be brought out even more by the sunlight when it got out to sea. A running deck could be seen at several leveles where a passenger could look out across the waves and walk the perimeter of the ship.. And much like any Big Blue event or place, it was guaranteed to be expensive. "The Beluga" could be seen on both sides, just below the window "eyes". Passengers had begun to board through the mouth section.

Sebester Tanner thought it was ugly as hell, but was still amazed none the less. All the stories he had heard from the Zon deliverymen did not dissapoint. His position on the ship enabled him to see everyone who walked up the boarding ramp. There were a lot of clueless people, like the Federation's more profitable entrepreneurs. But he knew among the crowds there was plenty of low life's and dangerous people who could probably use the Zonagen he was selling. Even if the main parties Tanner had been trying to work over didn't come... there'd still be plenty of buyers.

His attention soon shifted to some approaching limos under guard. The first to arrive was the Vespula Queen and her "children". They formed a line from the limo to the boarding ramp when she stepped out. The cruise line already had its welcome party on the ramp, including the captain and some other big wigs. Serpent Reef owned the Beluga, so they took extra effort to pamper the Queen in every way possible. And she was in rare form, walking with a scepter of some sort and looking noticeably pleased. And if it wasn't clear from a first look, the way her wings were spread would have done it just as well. But when she reached the boarding ramp, she paused and turned around as another limo pulled up. Even Tanner shifted his weight slightly as if to get a better view. Out came six very distinct Vespula that he recognized right off the bat.

The Vesupla's Generals had been brought along for the trip.

With the stance and the armor, not to mention the one by one formation, they were easily the most disciplined group out of the bunch. All of them were known for the gold sash and the red stingers and the fact they personally led their armies into conflict zones. Commanders were nothing when stacked up against a Vespula General. Seb had only fought against the forces of one in his time with the Galactic Army, and figured the only time he'd ever see all six was a part of a Vespula firing squad. They loved to supervise executions.

"Holy... all six!"

Tanner turned to see Scratch next to him, almost leaning so far off the rail a fly could have pushed him to his doom. His boss just shuttered and smiled at the same time.

"They say when you see one, they want to burn a planet to the ground. When you see all six, they want something so bad the whole universe becomes expendable."

"Then that means..."

"Hah... it's on." Tanner finished with a laugh.

When the six generals reached their queen, they broke up into a line formation and gave a synchronized Vespula-style bow. She gave her nod of approval, and the whole group moved inside the ship.

"With those guys here-"

"Guys, Scratch?" Tanner snapped. "All of them are female loser. The ideal Vespula warrior has always been a female."

They became silent as more Vespula boarded the ship as if invading the place. Scratch and Tanner knew that every single one of them was there to serve their queen in some way or another. There must have been a hundred of them, and Tanner knew they didn't check out one room, they checked out a whole deck. It seemed like the boarding process was over but the Captain stuck around, and so did he along with Scratch. And very slowly, a convoy of vehicles showed up in much the same fashion as the Vespula. When the first car pulled up to empty its passengers, the ones that got out said it all.

"Black Hole..." Scratch whispered.

"Shut up loser."

There was a group of sixteen that swarmed the boarding ramp and took up various positions as another limo pulled up. The silver striped squad leader was nice enough to tell the captain...

"If you value your well-being, you will stay out of our way. They do not want anything from you and care nothing for your obligations."

The greeting party of the Beluga eventually pulled out after awhile and the limo doors opened up. Tanner gripped the rail in anticipation as Scratch had forgotten to breathe. The whole trip they had been trying to meet with Sturm and Drang of Black Hole, and every single time they had been blown off. It had gotten to the point where they began to doubt if the emperor brothers existed. But here they were... until four people stepped out of the limo and headed toward the cruise ship.

"What the hell... what the hell... what the hell is this?" Tanner stuttered.

He soon turned and took off, while Scratch did a double take.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Scratch didn't get an answer, and turned back toward the group of four. Three men and a woman... no, more like a little girl in a black labcoat. It went along well with the black uniforms the other three were wearing. The whole group was a sight to see. One man was the size of a house. Another was as thin as a rail. The last man looked as if he had never felt an emotion in his life. The girl couldn't keep herself still and ran circles around the group. Well, Scratch's mistake, she was on roller blades. And before they could take one step inside the ship, Tanner charged down the ramp with his fists cocked like he was going to punch someone.

"Where's Sturm and Drang?" He barked at them.

The Black Hole soldiers readied their weapons, but didn't fire a shot. The stoic man had raised a hand to pause them.

"Our masters have never stepped out in the open for simple transactions like this, and they certainly won't start for you." The thin man explained with a smile.

"Shut up you goddamn albino freak!"

Tanner was furious. The thin man simply laughed, a smooth and diabolical one and folded his hands behind his back.

"Insults are for the weak."

"Tee hee hee! He has a dirty mouth!" The girl squealed. "Can we clean it out for him? Huh? Can we?"

She was making gestures to the scores of armed soldiers standing around them. The stoic man simply kept silent and shook his head. This caused the girl to cross her arms and skate off somewhere behind the man that was as wide as a truck.

"Where are they?" Tanner asked again, this time holding his finger out in front like he was going to impale someone with a quick jab.

"You heard us." The stoic man finally said.

This caused Tanner to pause for a moment. There was something that hinted of a well of ruthlessness in the stoic man's voice. It was devoid of any sort of feeling except malice. Tanner was sure that even the Space Pirates had some sort of life in their voices when they screeched cusses or yelled at one another. But this feeling passed quickly and Tanner became more angry than before.

"Alright Mohawk, you tell your bosses that if they don't show up before disembarking time tomorrow, you won't even get to take a crack at Zonagen. If you come in, I'm gonna pretend like you're all something I crapped out last week."

"You gonna stop us? Worm?" The big man asked in a gruff, unforgiving tone. "Looks like the only thing you got is a big mouth."

The big man looked toward the soldiers around them. They had begun to close in, creating a circle around the four arrivals and Tanner. But this didn't shake Seb in the least and he simply cracked a grin and muttered.

"I heard stuff about you. The way you guys operate. You don't fire a shot unless you plan to go all the way. And I ain't talking about boarding a goddamn ship. You and I know, that the only way you're going to go all the way here, is if you land your hands on Zonagen. And you can't do that if your bosses don't get their asses down here **now!**"

There was a long and eerie pause. The only thing making noise now as the roller blades of the girl. She soon came to a stop to the left of the big man and all of them began to stare at Tanner.

"Ok, back in the limo." The stoic man ordered.

The other three made a reluctant shuffle back towards the car. The soldiers did likewise, and the stoic man simply looked over Tanner thoughtfully.

"You played your cards well. But let us hope you still have a hand left to deal with Sturm and Drang."

With that, they all returned to the limo, and their convoy drove off. Tanner turned around and looked up towards Scratch, shaking his head. He was going to have it his way if it was the last thing he did.

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Nightmare Hold


	10. Chapter 10: Nightmare Hold

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 10: Nightmare Hold

The Federation Police precinct was much quieter this time than when Samus had been there last. That was because most of the officers were standing around, watching her sit motionless in a lobby seat. By that time, all of them had heard the stories. Samus Aran had just been crushed by a truck and stood up after being stirred by medics.

"She's not human." One officer whispered.

"That's putting it lightly."

"No sense in whispering boys." A female officer spoke up. "She knows we're staring at her."

After the mention of that, everyone scattered to go about what they had originally intended. One of the morgue doctors began to approach the lobby with the captain of the precinct, a red haired man with a narrow face.

"So, what did those X-Rays reveal?"

"Well... her bones did show signs of being shattered in the last 24 hours... but they're completely whole. Some of the fracture lines are even beginning to disappear. Any medical attention from here on out would be unnecessary."

The captain stared at Edwards for a long time.

"I thought her suit only drained energy to keep its systems running."

"Look sir, to tell you the truth. I don't know where the suit begins and Samus's body ends. It seems to me that as long as she's wearing the suit, it's just another part of her. It's nothing like the tin cans we equip our officers with. It's so... alive."

The two of them had gradually begun to look over toward Samus and were now gaping at her like the other officers had been just a short while ago.

"You sure she's ok? A truck did crush her."

"Are you sure it wasn't a piece of paper?" Edwards shot back in a sarcastic manner.

"All right, all right, thanks doc."

The captain waved Edwards off and began to approach the bounty hunter. She moved her helmet slightly in his direction, but the movement was so relaxed that gave him the impression she was lost in thought. Her arm cannon hung loosely to the ground, while her other arm was limp in her lap.

"Graves has a transmission coming through. You'll have to take it in my office. It's the only secure line."

This caused her to stand up quickly enough, but as she moved away from the captain it was a slow and indifferent walk. No air of confidence, or sheer determination. It was a walk like someone had just woken up. Whatever was going on inside her head, it made her slow to pick up that the captain was not following her.

"Aren't you going to stand in?" She asked with her usual tone.

"Not a high enough clearance." He told her.

"Right." She sighed back.

Samus climbed a short set of stairs and made her way into the office of the captain. There were plenty of virtual plaques on the wall, and some personal pictures located near the desk. Sensitive reports and detailed case files on data discs were stacked in one corner, almost like the classic "in box, out box" routine. Then there was the desk in the center, with a screen propped up and flashing the incoming message icon. It had been on standby, and from the looks of it, a long time. Samus sat down in the chair and pressed the enter key to make Graves' image pop up on screen.

"Samus? Finally! Where have you been? What the hell is going on?"

"My ship was destroyed. Surely Adam told you that."

"Is that what happened? When Adam uploaded himself into the databanks, his consciousness was scrambled beyond recognition. Our best tech team is still sifting through the data. We didn't know what to think. Oh yes, and before you worry, Adam is salvageable. It's just going to take a long time."

It only took Samus a second to realize the Zonagen bomb was the cause for the damage. The radiation had almost erased him in the process of transfer.

"Victoria Maitlin has completely lost her mind. She's been hemorrhaging information for the last four days. We have been meaning to make contact for awhile now."

Graves could see Samus lean back in the chair.

"She's said a lot of things. But for the most part, she keeps screaming about being with Seb and wanting to meet him on the Beluga. Over and over again until her throat gives out. She waits a night or two, and starts it up again. We don't know what to do with her other than put her in a sanatorium."

We have a cruise to catch... Tanner's voice echoed throughout Samus's head. She balled her hand into a fist and took a deep breath.

"Sir, I need your authorization to terminate Sebester Tanner, and any other Sand Trap personnel." She asked strongly

Graves stood there stone-faced upon hearing Samus's request. He was silent and seemed to be looking her over.

"What happened? What did you find out during that time after your ship was destroyed?"

"Tanner has no intention of returning to the Galactic Federation. He's going to sell Zonagen to the Vespula or anyone else that wants it. I can no longer afford to treat him as a civilian."

Graves was silent for a long time.

"I'll be frank; making you judge, jury, and executioner won't look good at all. You understand?" He became silent again. "But if will stop him from giving Zonagen to the likes of the Vespula... Permission granted."

Samus had gotten what she wanted and began to look around the room. She still lost Tanner, and an instinct in her body made her feel like it was too late to wander around aimlessly. Then she saw a picture on the desk. It was of the Police captain and his wife. Serpent Reef Cruise Lines could be seen at the bottom of the digital picture, and the boat they were standing in front of had a name in cursive...

"General Graves, what did you say Victoria kept yelling out?" Samus asked suddenly.

"Hold on,"

He took a moment to double check as Samus stood up and got a closer look at the picture.

"Reports stated she keeps wanting to meet Tanner on the Beluga. But since she's insane, it's hard to tell what that means."

By the time Graves had finished his sentence, Samus was already out of the room.

* * *

The sun was setting by the time a white speeding blur came rocketing into the South Blue Docks. All the dockworkers moving about did a double take as a gust of wind suddenly came roaring by. Some could see the blur weave in and out of the cargo crates and any cars and head right for the Vacation section of the harbor. Even security didn't know what to make of it, but it wasn't like they were going to do anything. Very special Black Hole VIPs had just arrived, and due to interplanetary courtesy, they were to stay the hell out of the way if they valued their jobs.

Samus came to a sliding stop when the Beluga came into view. It was sitting directly in the setting sun, and appeared to be on fire from her angle. She moved closer, only to see a swarm of black vehicles creating a perimeter around the boarding ramp. The strange soldiers in the black spacesuits also patrolled the area, with their hands on their gun arms. None of the vehicles they walked around looked like any sort of Federation design she had seen. Most of them had no windows and some were even equipped with a turret that swiveled around like the head of an owl. It was a perfect position to take up, because the parking lot provided little areas to sneak around.

She was trying to decide how to go about getting to the ship when a black limo under escort pulled in from the visitor entrance and began to head toward the heavy blockade. Samus took up position behind a parked car and used her Morph Ball function. When the escort rolled by, she moved out and under it, now out of sight due to the lack of light and large shadow generated by the limo. In no time she was at the center of the mass of black vehicles and her sensors could pick up everything. It was a perfect position to detect the ramp. It was an even better position to register two enormous figures as they stepped out of a limo and made their way toward the Beluga.

"Look alive worms! Pay your respects to Lord Sturm and Drang!" One squad leader coughed out.

Sturm and Drang were both giants, twelve feet tall easy. And while their bodies were hidden by long flowing capes, it was hard to tell what exactly they were. They could have either been machines, or creatures wearing masks. Sturm could be identified as the one with a snout shaped like the grill of a truck with two bronze pipes jutting out of each side. These pipes wound around to his back somewhere and disappeared under the cape. The hat shaped like an officer's cap would have hidden his eyes if they didn't glow an eerie teal color.

Drang was a head shorter than Sturm, but still much taller than any human. He, like his brother, wore a cape to conceal every part of his body. But that's where the similarities ended. For one, his snout was capped off and there was no opening at the end. Instead, countless tubes branched off the sides and hung down like a metallic moustache. These tubes emitted some sort of smoke at a steady rate and served as the exhaust ports. His eyes, hidden under the same type of cap, were red.

Any soldier that was remotely near them straightened up like a bullet and put their arms parallel to their body. They dared not move until their rulers had gotten a sizable distance and then went back to their usual routine. They did this until Sturm and Drang met with the silver striped squad leader that had announced their arrival.

"My lords! We have not yet made any progress on our search..."

"You had better, and soon. All of this aggravation of coming out here should be worth every second. I need not remind you I am already busy elsewhere." Sturm said.

"Don't be so impatient brother." Drang began. "You've seen the locals of this galaxy reaction to this... It **will **be worth our while considering there are so many parties already involved. That brings me to my next observation. If we take any hostile action before declaring war... the other lords with exile us."

"Who will be around to tell them after we have conquered this galaxy? Once we acquire his weapon, this human will be the first to burn."

A large plume of smoke burst out of Drang's tubes before disappearing into the wind.

"Yes yes... I remember your **high** opinion of humans. Must I remind you, dear brother, that arrogance is your primary weakness?"

Samus could only listen to the clear and cutthroat tones of the two brothers. It was a feeling similar to when she had come in contact with Mother Brain. As if the brothers themselves were bottomless pits, ready to swallow up anything that got in their way. Their speech was not hindered by any sort of filter or breathing apparatus, and it only enhanced their dark tone even more.

"Forget your prejudices Drang. Even a sample the size of a teardrop will be enough, and we can duplicate all that we require." The two moved closer to the entrance of the cruise liner. "If we add this galaxy to our growing list of conquered territories... the other nobles will treat us as gods! Nothing else will matter."

Drang had no rebuttal for this statement and simply huffed a larger smoke cloud than before. Sturm soon turned to the squad leader after observing his brother's disapproval.

"Find where the human is keeping this 'Zonagen' material. My brother and I will play the part of the guests to keep him distracted. For what this human has put us through, you would think all he ever wanted was our presence."

"Humph, the miserable cur... he will live to regret it." Drang added.

The emperor brothers stood in silence for awhile and then moved on into the ship. Soldiers, in two groups of five, began to gather around the squad leader.

"We're going to do a complete search of the holds. You're all looking for a radiation count off the scales. Now don't come back empty handed!"

The soldiers entered the ship as the vehicles that had blocked the area began to take off in different directions. Soon enough it was deserted, with Samus sitting right in front of the boarding ramp in Morph Ball form. She came out of it and took a quick look around before boarding the ship. It was her luck that the men checking tickets had become too wrapped up in Sturm and Drang's arrival to notice her, and she slipped by. There was no time to explain her mission assigned by the Federation, nor did she even want to in the first place. She had to find Zonagen and contain it before Black Hole retreated a sample large enough to turn the whole galaxy upside down.

The group of soldiers split up, with one group going deeper into the ship, and the other heading toward the lifts. Due to the number of people, and the ruckus caused by the Black Hole leaders' arrival, it was easy for Samus to move without everyone crying out her name. After all, the Black Hole soldiers shared a similar look with a gun arm and full body suit. They were merely wider and in a darker color scheme than Samus, and to be frank, the entrance lobby of the cruiser was confusing all in itself with too much going on, and not enough space to contain it.

She soon followed the group around the corner to a set of lifts. The five squeezed into one, and began to head down. Samus ran forward and caught the secondary doors before they closed. The lift itself was modeled after an old elevator system and there was a roof to the car that could support someone on its way up or down. That's just what Samus did. The shaft was pitch black, but she could hear the soldiers in the car talking amongst themselves.

"The Beluga's hold is close quarters, so I want every last one of you using the shotgun function. Understand?"

Choruses of "yes sir" followed. Then the sounds of guns whirring and clicking followed. It sounded as if they had just helped themselves to an armory. And they were just as noisy when clearing the lift and moving out into the holds. Samus waited a couple seconds before prying open an emergency hatch and dropped down into the car. What loomed ahead of her was an expansive, two level area full of cargo containers. The lower level housed the containers, while the second level was a catwalk system. The holds of the Beluga were poorly lit, and Samus could already make out the light of someone searching the area. But before she could make a move, an announcement came on.

"Attention crewmembers, this is the captain speaking. We are ready for departure; please make all routine security checks before we clear the harbor zone. We are submerging once we reach the Ziggurat Reef, so all hatches must be checked and cleared by then. That is all."

The room shuttered slightly as the Beluga's engines started up and began to pull the cruise liner away from the docks. This is when Samus readied her arm cannon and began to creep slowly across the catwalk. The holds were silent, and the only activity she could make out was the light off in the distance. It swung from container to container and was heading right toward her. It wasn't long before she could see the light belonged to a human crewmember, going about his usual security routines. His boredom was very noticeable as he dragged his feet and sighed after checking each container.

That's when Samus noticed something creeping up behind him. When an awful crack had occurred and the crewmember was on the ground unconscious, she could see it was a Black Hole soldier. The soldier was now pointing his gun arm at the crewmember's head and right before he was about to pull the trigger, something caught his attention. He jumped as if a very loud sound had just broken his concentration. The next thing he did was look around the hold in a perplexed manner. He put his hand to the side of his helmet and soon turned completely around. Something was happening elsewhere.

The soldier soon broke into a dead run and abandoned the crewmember on the ground. Samus jumped down to the lower section of the holds, and gave chase. It seemed like the soldier was almost going in random directions as he weaved left and right through the mass of containers. Whatever was going on, it had his full attention, as he didn't bother to check over his shoulders once. They must have traversed the ship fore to aft. But eventually they came to a wall where the containers and catwalks stopped. The soldier located a hatch and head right in, but Samus came to a stop to see where they had ended up.

It was a restricted area, blocked off from the rest of the hold and the hatch had been blown open with explosives. The discharge of weaponry could be heard inside, along with the agonizing screams of someone in pain. She was about to run in when it abruptly stopped. Now there was silence and it didn't feel like there were any soldiers still moving around up ahead. Something was happening, something very bad was happening. A chill worked its way up and down Samus's spine. It was then she realized just how cold the hold had become.

Moving into the restricted area didn't help a bit. If anything, it was now colder than ever. Her suit no longer suffered the serious side effect when ice was used against her, but the feeling was still uncomfortable none the less. This area was different, in there was only a perimeter catwalk above and that it only seemed to house one type of container. They had several stacked in groups of four. Every single one of them was identical, with something burned off the top by a laser cutter. Her heart skipped a beat. Could this be Zonagen?

Any thought reserved for that feeling were overridden with a new one. She finally noticed the Black Hole soldiers strung up behind her. There were six of them, hung with some type of organic webbing. Scanning it would reveal it was webbing from a very large spider. And when she gave a closer look towards the soldiers themselves... the only word to describe them would be, "mutilated". An unnecessary mutilation judging by their wounds.

"Let go of me!" A frantic cry came out from somewhere behind Samus.

She spun around and looked about the area. The cry had come from the corner, and she slowly made her way towards the source. When she turned the corner of one of the containers, she could see a Black Hole soldier up against the wall with a multitude of tentacles wrapped around where his neck would be.

"Phantoon..." Samus gasped.

But the ghost didn't seem to notice Samus and kept toying with his present victim.

"You don't breathe oxygen too well... do you?" Phantoon laughed. "You're one of the more interesting species. The only thing I can compare your blood to... is something like motor oil, or hydraulic fluid. But you're far from machine aren't you?"

The soldiers red eyes were wide with terror. It was obvious that fear was one of his lesser felt emotions.

"Let's see how long you last... without that suit of yours."

Phantoon then popped the soldier's helmet like a cork off a wine bottle. Almost immediately, the soldier began to gag and claw futilely at Phantoon's tentacles. His snout swung around and sucked away at the air as if desperately trying to find some source that was breathable. A long hideous cry signaled his death as he went limp in Phantoon's grasp. The ghost took a moment to observe the dead body longingly before casting it aside like trash. Samus soon opened fire with Plasma and hit Phantoon a couple of times. It had no effect, just like in Sand Trap.

"Hello to you too, Samus. Are you looking for death? Like the strange beings I just met?"

"I'm looking forward to yours."

"What?" Phantoon laughed. "You say it like death is something to fear! On the contrary, death is a very good friend of mine. I'd love to introduce you."

"Oh, there is still a lot left to fear on your end, Phantoon."

The ghost floated toward the center of the room and began to laugh again.

"I wish I could talk to you forever... but... I would say that I enjoy making Mother Brain happy. Her brain waves... her thoughts... so delicious... I could never exist without them. That is why... I would do anything for her. **Anything**."

"What did you say?"

"I said... it's time for the big farewell. You've served your purpose. You tracked down Tanner for us, and flushed him out of hiding. There is no reason to spare you like the time on Sand Trap."

In a smooth effortless movement, Samus launched a missile. Phantoon snatched up in mid air, grasping it tightly as the thrust tried to free itself from his grasp. He began to shake it at the hunter in a condescending way.

"For shame Samus! You should realize a stray missile... might cause a Zonagen leak. As much as I would like to see you melt away into **nothing**... I have to keep every crate in prime condition. Ridley has to have something to move them in."

Phantoon soon disappeared in the blink of an eye. His insane laugher filled the holds.

"I'm over here Samus!" He called from outside the restricted area. "Let's make this a parting to remember!"

Samus took a moment to focus her thoughts and soon ran after him with her arm cannon ready to go.

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Slaughterhouse


	11. Chapter 11: Slaughterhouse

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 11: Slaughterhouse

Samus was greeted with a massive fireball upon leaving the restricted section. She barely had time to leap up and out of the way as it slammed into the wall and created a molten impact zone. She landed on one of the catwalks and was stunned to see the spider Yakuza crawling along the ground. Its multi-sectioned mouth opened up and let loose another fireball to decimate another section of the hold. The attack brought a whole section of the catwalk system crashing to the ground and sent Samus rolling into a container. She jumped up in an acrobatic motion and opened fire, letting loose a barrage of missiles.

"I can see your nightmares!" Phantoon sang. "I can feel every single creature you ever slaughtered! It's such a vivid picture... I can make them come alive again, and I'll have Yakuza string you up the way he did those soldiers in the restricted section!"

Yakuza leapt up and tried to body slam the hunter. It was a quick springing motion that almost worked, except that Samus rolled out of the way in a Morph Ball form. The infected spider then leapt up onto a crate and opened his mouth to cough up another fireball. But it was met with an ice beam, which froze its mouth open. It shuffled around shaking its jaws angrily and soon smashed its head into the top of a crate to shatter the block. When it spun around to locate its target, it found itself staring down the barrel of Samus's arm cannon.

When it tried to jump out of the way, it was blasted into oblivion with another round of missiles. Its head was ejected from the main body and the whole creature disappeared in a plume of smoke.

"You don't like spiders, Samus? Ok, then let us move onto more familiar faces."

She turned around to see Crocomire appear before her. The large eight-eyed creature let out a distorted scream and launched a river of acid from his mouth. Samus ran from the deadly yellow substance as it went to work eating nearby containers. At that point, she wondered just how many creatures Phantoon could materialize at one time. Her question was soon answered as the heavy green shell of the Spore Spawn dropped from the ceiling and nearly crushed her. It opened up and spewed a cloud of spores that dug its way into anything it touched.

Crocomire was really moving, dragging his heavy body through the corridors created by the containers. He was good on keeping his mouth shut and merely growled at Samus when making eye contact. There was not much he had to worry about. Between his acid attacks and the wild Spore Spawn, Samus was forced to keep her mind on moving and not attacking. An explosion rang out as the acid penetrated something less than stable. Smoke began to fill the hold and Crocomire lost sight of his long time enemy.

Samus was busy finding cover from all the spores that rained down on the area. One by itself was nothing to worry about, but the sheer volume would take its toll over time if it touched her. She had taken up position in a corner of the hold, and had a good view of the Spore Spawn's long vine. It swung wildly like a ball and chain and would smack the walls of the hold and give it a good shake. She readied her Plasma and began to take potshots at the vine. Soon enough it caught on fire and detached from the ceiling.

This gave her position away to Crocomire, who had successfully clawed his way in her direction. She was keeping her distance, and also keeping a container in-between them. When the red scaled lizard grew tired of this, he took the container and shoved it toward a wall, hoping to crush the bounty hunter. He nudged his snout up over the container in order to get a good look and took a missile to the nose. It was enough to make him cry out in pain and before long, he had a mouthful of missiles. Super Missiles. Then he was no more, disappearing in the fashion Yakuza did. Up in smoke.

The hunter in the middle of it all was crouching on the container Crocomire had shoved out of position. She was wondering what could possibly be next and kept her sights on the move. Emergency systems had turned on, and a lot of the smoke was sucked up by ventilation systems. Now the hold had become dark and quiet. Just the way Phantoon would like it before tearing another bad memory from Samus's mind and turning it loose on the holds.

But it didn't stay quiet for long; the sound of whizzing missiles filled the air as two pairs came flying at Samus. It was too quick for her to dodge and she was tossed into the wall. Her mind rushed to think what kind of adversary used missiles. A metallic clank of madly moving limbs made her remember the rouge security robot on the B.S.L. She was exactly right as the B.O.X. Model leapt up onto the container with her and fired another round of missiles.

"Your memories are much more vivid than any human I've tortured before. It must be due to the Chozo's influence. What do you think?"

Samus fired away madly at the core of the security robot, causing the metal to buckle as it did so long ago. By the time the brain was exposed, it made its move and jumped on top of her. She squirmed to push it off of her as the legs tried to crush her skull, jutting up and then down in a rhythmic motion. The roof of container they were on soon collapsed and the both of them fell into a box full of electronic computers. From the outside, you could only hear Samus grunting and the robot crushing anything it could get its legs on. Then there was a flash, and the whole container was wiped out in an explosion.

The Power Bomb shattered the robots core and sent the legs flying. Once it shut down, it disappeared into a plume of red colored smoke. Samus rolled out, with her suit showing signs of wear and tear. There was no time to rest, not a second, as a rampaging Sheegoth steamrolled her. Phantoon could not help but cackle when watching the hunter slide dozens of feet across the floor, well after the beast had come to a stop.

"There is a certain admiration I have for wild creatures. They are so simple and easy to manipulate. No grudges or emotions to get in the way. Just primal instinct."

Samus looked up, dazed from the impact to see Phantoon's three eyes watching intently. He was enjoying every minute of it. It didn't matter how many of his puppets died for the second time; just the whole scene was enough in itself. Samus could have run circles around a container as the Sheegoth chased her, and it would all be the same to Phantoon. In frustration, she fired upward towards the eyes. It was a direct hit, but it only caused the rest of his body to materialize. He rolled his eyes in random directions before laughing again.

"I wouldn't worry about me. I'd worry about the three-ton ice creature ready to stomp you into dust!"

The Sheegoth charged again, but stopped when someone shot it in the face. It reared back and roared as another shot rang out and then a whole barrage of shots. Before long it fell to its side, thoroughly riddled full of bullets. Both Samus and Phantoon looked toward the elevators to see two more squads of Black Hole soldiers arrived. The ten began to spread out as the squad leader looked about chaos.

"Whatever they are, kill them both!" The squad leader barked. "They're in the way!"

"No no **no!**" Phantoon stuttered upon seeing the new arrivals. "Go find your graves, I'll be with you shortly!"

Phantoon cracked his crooked tentacles and caused a wave of fire to head toward the group of soldiers. They scattered like bugs under a light. Some leapt down into the chaos of the wrecked containers, while some tried to navigate the twisted catwalks. None of them wasted any time opening fire on Phantoon, who was the largest target in the area. Shooting Phantoon only caused a retaliation that involved blue hot plasma, which set fire and melted anything it touched. When a Black Hole soldier was hit with this attack... they soon became melted beyond recognition.

Samus realized soon enough there was no negotiating with Black Hole, as they fired before she could even get off the ground. And as if there wasn't enough fire already, one let loose with a flamethrower sending red orange flames down the small space in-between the containers. And when that wouldn't suffice, the awful crack of their shotguns caused her to move as if she was trying to dance. Her reaction might have been different if Phantoon hadn't softened her up already.

"That humiliation was mine!" Phantoon cried before tearing a hole through one of the soldiers below with his tentacles.

Any shots that managed to hit Phantoon's three eyes only seemed to irritate them instead of doing any real damage. Still, it didn't discourage the Black Hole soldiers in the least, and they kept up their attack. The ones attacking Samus hadn't let up for a second, rattling off shotgun round after shotgun round. If she tried to turn around, they'd switch into full auto and fill the air with lead. Whatever system their gun arms ran on, it didn't seem like they had to reload any time soon.

"Where'd the orange one go?"

"There! There! Over there!"

One soldier up above switched targets and tried to shoot Samus as she ran toward him below. But he wasn't fast enough on the draw, and took an ice beam to the face. There was a pause, and then the soldier began to dance around shouting out curses.

"It's cold! Get it off of me! Cold, cold, cold, cold! Mother of Sturm! Get it off of me! It's **cold**!"

He stumbled backwards, and then fell off the catwalk. As soon as he hit the ground, his suit shattered and exposed him to the atmosphere of the Beluga. The scene was not unlike Phantoon's little experiment earlier, as the creature flopped around on the ground before expiring. The two that were chasing after Samus slit to a halt and exchanged uneasy glances.

"Ice? It has ice?" One realized.

"This isn't good..." The other whispered.

Samus took this moment to slide to a stop, and then turned around with her arm cannon charging. One soldier couldn't even turn around before getting nailed by an ice beam blast. The other one was quicker, able to dart behind a container to keep from becoming a Popsicle. Soon enough every soldier in the hold noticed the blue trails of Samus's ice beam, and none were too happy.

"Sir!" A soldier cried out. "Nothing is working on the three-eyed thing! And the other has ice based weaponry!"

"Grr... Retreat! We're not equipped to handle this! Fall back to the elevator! Let them finish each other off!"

The Black Hole soldiers darted back to the lift and barely got the doors closed before Phantoon launched a burst of plasma in their direction. Now the twisted ghost could turn his attention back towards Samus, who had her back to one of the containers, ready to spring out in a moments notice.

"Now, where were we? Oh yes... meeting up with old friends..."

A hideous roar erupted from Phantoon's direction as Kraid slowly faded into view. The massive green beast could hardly stand upright in the hold and was crouching the best it could. If he tried to move, the whole ceiling let out a metallic groan and shook. The fact of the matter was that Kraid couldn't take a step forward without bringing the whole ship down on top of him, but it hardly mattered. His arm span was large enough to reach into the darkest corners of the hold. When he took a swipe, he knocked away most of the cover Samus was using and brought her out into the open.

"That's right Kraid, crush her. Crush her into a flat Metroid pancake. I want to see her, **everywhere**!"

Something occurred to Samus just then. Being around Kraid was the same as being around Ridley during the semi chase. It seemed like there was a void where something didn't belong, and her instinct couldn't decide what to make of it.

"No." Samus said suddenly, and deactivated her missile launcher.

"What... what are you doing? Reactivate your launcher! Or Kraid will make mincemeat out of you! I will see to it!"

"I don't intend to continue this charade anymore." Samus said strongly. "I don't have **time **for this."

Phantoon closed his mouth and moved it back and forth. Even Kraid halted his attack and began to growl.

"What are you talking about? You have no choice! You will fight, or die!"

"The Space Pirates aren't here are they? They're just your imagination, living in the past. It's your justification for being here. It's your justification for all of this."

This caused the ghost to freeze. Kraid began to stir uncomfortably and let out a roar of impatience. Soon the great green beast disappeared with a flicker, as if an old television was finally giving out and shutting off.

"Why did you say that? It doesn't work if you don't believe in them..." Phantoon whispered in a pitiful tone. "You're supposed to kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill..."

"Something felt wrong about Ridley on the semi. Just like what I felt about Kraid a couple moments ago. Ridley looked exactly like he did when I visited Zebes the second time, and now I know why. He was your fantasy. He was what you saw him when you were part of the Space Pirates. Do you how many changes Ridley has gone through since then? Your image of him is hardly accurate."

There was a long pause as Phantoon opened his mouth again and began to endlessly stare directly at Samus.

"By the time I found the Space Pirates again... Mother Brain was nowhere to be found... No longer could I feel her brainwaves as I once did. Why... if I can't enjoy her beloved thoughts... then what is the point of being around? I need an anchor... I thought about you... but your brainwaves are so... puny compared to hers."

"Out of panic, you made your own Mother Brain." Samus continued. "You made your own Space Pirates so you could feel at home and belong like you once did. The only problem is... you already knew the reality of it. Your fantasy was just a band-aid for a gaping wound. How long have you been on the way out Phantoon?"

Phantoon began to flicker. It seemed that something died away within him.

"Oh... Days now. And that's the reality of it. You killed her! You killed Mother Brain in her prime! Where could I go from there? You didn't save me after destroying Zebes, you invited me into a second life of torture!"

The light in the room began to die as if someone was sucking it out.

"I'm going to make you tear your eyes out!"

A circle of flames erupted from the center of Phantoon's eyes and went flying out towards Samus. They lit up the area for a quick moment before extinguishing on contact with the ground. It was constant now, wave after wave after wave. Phantoon was relentless. Something had changed, he was no longer enjoying it. The chaos no longer seemed appealing to him. It all seemed so empty.

With that, Samus tried one last time and sent a missile flying into Phantoon's head. It blew up and sent a large chunk flying off into somewhere. There was now a sizable hole going right through Phantoon's forehead. His eyes rolled upwards to look at it, and then bulged wide as if someone had stabbed him.

"Did you just... wound me?"

He paused, and then let loose a horrible otherworldly screech that even managed to make Samus flinch. The ghost had nothing left to feed off of. Even the torture and pain he inflicted no longer caused any sensation. His tentacles swung up as if to try and cover the hole caused by the missile. Meanwhile, Samus was fighting to aim and fire again. The screech had become maddening, and she would hear it even if her suits audio systems weren't working. It was that loud.

Somehow she found the strength to fire again and blew off Phantoon's right tentacles. The countless squirming mass flopped around all the way to the ground. Now a trail of smoke escaped from the new wounds the ghost had sustained. Then he began to make a blind rush toward the hunter with his remaining tentacles flailing. His mouth was wide open, and his eyes were trained directly on her. The two were about to make contact when Samus fired again, and hit him dead center in the mouth.

"To think I could still be so vulnerable..." Phantoon whispered. "But there is one thing... I have the satisfaction of knowing that..."

There was a pause as his tentacles stopped moving, and his diseased skin began to drop to the floor in large slivers. He was dissolving.

"...no matter what you do you'll never eliminate the things you hate most. You just keep pushing them back into the shadows. Again and again. That's the wonderful part, they'll keep coming back out. Welcome to your life Samus Aran! A vicious pitiful circle!"

"Move on Phantoon. You're way past your due." Samus said in an exhausted tone, after realizing it was over.

The ghost "winked" before finally fading out of existence and disappearing into nothing, just like the creatures he had brought back earlier. A pile of slime had gathered on the ground from Phantoon's disintegration and moved like jello. Samus took a quick look over the trashed hold of the Beluga and headed toward the lift.

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Auction Day


	12. Chapter 12: Auction Day

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 12: Auction Day

The security room of the Beluga was known for it's huge wall screen and a system able to bring up any section, any inch, and any dark corner of the ship at any moment. For Scratch, it was a dream come true to have the Beluga's security system at his fingertips. He hadn't had a system so advanced since his last intelligence mission in the Galactic Army. Even the Sand Trap's system was a dinosaur. The only explanation he had for that was the official one. The one where HQ said the facility was so isolated that it didn't need any. But Scratch knew that the real reason was because of the B.S.L. sucking up their funding. It was memories like that, which reminded Scratch why he followed Tanner around for so long.

Scratch was looking at the Black Hole rooms right now. Most of his concentration was at the one with Sturm and Drang. They had done something to the sensors and the only picture that came up when their room was cued was a blank screen. He'd been working at it for hours, but it was no use. The only blind spot in the entire cruise ship was where Sturm and Drang stayed, and he couldn't figure out why. A separate window popped up and showed one of their soldiers pressing the call button in a separate room. This caused him to key in a "comm" command on the main screen, and he soon had audio contact with the service room.

"Hey Butch, the Black Hole guys called. They want room service, and you better get down there fast. Sturm and Drang don't have a whole lot of patience for humans."

The camera showed a clean room with five or so guys, all dressed in the white Beluga uniform. Despite their looks, all of them were from Sand Trap. As far as Scratch could tell, the captain of the Beluga owed Tanner something, and that's why they could blend into the crew so well. The only catch was keeping up the normal routines of the crew, and that included servicing to guests.

"Scratch? Since when did you get to be no.2?" Butch called up toward the screen.

"Since Boris and Chester got their guts torn out by Space Pirates. Now you wanna move already?"

He made sure Butch got his ass in gear, and then went back to the Black Hole surveillance problem. For a reference, he brought up the Vespula room with the queen and her six generals. Seeing all six of them together was still a bit much for Scratch to take in, even though he was using a camera to see them. And he stared for awhile, watching them as they huddled up around their queen who was lounging on a sofa. He noted how the queen could never get comfortable, and was always moving. The generals would do their best to fix the situation, but it was never enough. The room was still primarily made to suit Galactic Federation visitors.

Then he heard a strange drone from behind and swiveled in his chair to see what it was. Now he had his nose partially shoved in Samus Aran's arm cannon and almost fell backwards when he realized just what the hell it was.

"What the... how in the **hell** did you get in here?" Scratch bellowed.

Samus moved to the left a bit, and gave Scratch a view of the doorway. The two men who were acting as guards were nowhere to be seen... but the mist associated with very cold temperatures could be seen creeping along the ground.

"God damn broad." Scratch muttered. "I can't wait till Tanner-"

"Where is he?"

"I don't know. Let find that out for you." He shot back in an annoyed tone.

Scratch had begun to move toward the console when Samus grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him back around.

"I'll help myself, thank you." Samus told him. "You go to the corner, next to the boxes."

Samus kept her arm cannon trained on Scratch as he stood up and moved toward the corner up against the wall screen and some crates.

"You're suicidal; you know that? If the Vespula don't cap you, those Black Hole weirdoes will. They aren't from any part of known space, but they're pros. They move like any well-trained organized group would, only better. And from what the cameras are showing, they're packing anything from machine guns to rocket launchers."

"Oh, I'm well acquainted with their tactics." She responded while typing away on the console.

This got a laugh from Scratch, who then crossed his arms and leaned back against the boxes.

"You talkin' about your little slash and burn action in the holds? Hell, that's nothing. You had a spectral anomaly covering your back. That's another thing I'm gonna be looking forward to. When you catch them on a bad day. And with their leaders around, it seems like every passing second is an inconvenience to them."

She looked up from the console and only took a glance at him.

"I'll remember that."

The wall screen soon picked Tanner out from the hordes of occupants of the ship and enlarged the screen that had found him. He was just leaving the room with Sturm and Drang. There was a notable difference since she had last saw him. Now he was wearing a tuxedo of sorts, and even though the outfit had some of the newer features of clothing, it still retained the traditional shape and color. Two soldiers also left the room and watched him leave. When he had made it around the corner, the screen shifted to show him approaching an elevator. It was there he paused to give a thumbs up to the screen and moved into the car. Scratch gulped.

"What was that supposed to mean?" Samus demanded.

"That means it's auction time. I don't mind telling you, since there will be about 200 armed alien individuals with their rulers in attendance. That means they'll fight tooth and nail to protect them." He paused to adjust his collar and took a deep breath. "In short, you're screwed if you show up, and I'm not saying that to be an ass."

Samus stood up and caused Scratch to flinch. She only wondered why for a second.

"You think I'm going to kill you?"

"No... I just think..."

It was then Scratch suddenly turned around and pulled something up from behind the crates. Samus narrowly avoided a blast from the Charge Rifle Scratch had drawn out. It used to be standard Galactic Army issue, but was more or less outdated by now. But the blocky weapon still packed a punch, and Scratch was no stranger to its use. He fired again to blow the security console in two and then rushed toward the door. His attempt at escape was almost successful, until his left foot felt a tingling sensation.

Samus had jumped up just in time to catch Scratch's leg with an ice beam. It grazed him and froze his foot solid. He stumbled around in the hallway outside the security room and went face first into the ground. The bounty hunter ran out into the hallway to finish subduing Scratch, but was met with automatic fire and darted back into the safety of the security room. Now Scratch was on his back, barely able to keep the sights on his rifle straight enough to target properly. There was a short pause before he rolled over onto his belly and started to crawl away.

It was a straight shot to the elevator, only 13 or so feet, but too far for Scratch's condition as he squirmed as fast as he could go. Samus leaned out from her position in the security room and fired at the prone man. This move caused him to roll over onto his back and fire off more shots in her direction. They would have made their mark if it weren't for his awkward firing position. The exchange of blasts lasted all the way to the elevator, where Scratch fought to pull himself up and pound the keypad for the lift to head his way. The next time he looked in Samus's direction, she was halfway down the hall with her blasted pointed directly at his chest.

Scratch was frozen solid before he could get his weapon readied again. The elevator came just in time for Samus though. But she didn't get in. She only gazed downward at the frozen Scratch and checked a timer on her blaster.

"Wish things would stay frozen longer than a minute." She grumbled and headed back toward the security room.

The cameras trained on the Vespula and Black Hole rooms shown they were moving out. To somewhere in the cruise liner. The mass of soldiers following Sturm and Drang moved under sensors that constantly blacked out. Whatever was wrong with the system was following the Black Hole leaders as they moved along. This caused Samus turn to track the Vespula, who were easier to follow with sensors that actually worked. It only took a couple of seconds to see they were moving into the Beluga's largest theater. The real crew were already blocking off hallways to make room for the coming flood of exclusive guests. Samus checked the map of the cruiser liner and left the room.

-----------------------------------

Sebester Tanner entered the massive theater with a small grin. Since he was last to enter, he had a perfect view of the Vespula, Black Hole, and the other arrivals that meant very little to him. The Vespula and Black Hole had used the center isle as a separator while everyone else sat behind them. You had Vespula on the right, and Black Hole on the left. It made Tanner laugh to see they were keeping an eye on their leaders as well as each other. The soldiers from both sides kept their weapons in plain view, as a warning for those who wanted to try anything stupid. Now, Tanner knew nothing about Black Hole other than that they were extremely dangerous, so he couldn't quite make out what kind of defensive formation they had set up. But the Vespula were another matter entirely.

He could tell in a heartbeat that the six generals were on a Two-Two-Two formation. Two watched the queen, two watched the competition, and the last two were drifters. They would change their tactics according to the situation, whether it called for more offense or more defense. And you could trace this type of tactics all the way down to front line drones. But Tanner always kept this fact that Vespula behavior never stayed the same in the back of his mind. Whenever a different queen ascended to power that meant the whole race would change, as well as military tactics. The difference from other militaries is that the change in the Vespula was instantaneous. There was no transition stages, it just happened and made them all the more hard to predict and counteract. He wondered for a moment if Black Hole had any tricks of their sleeves when it came to tactics.

By the time he had finished reminiscing, he had made his way over to the Black Hole side, where Sturm and Drang were looking at him as if he were a cockroach.

"Don't disappoint us." Sturm warned.

This fired up Tanner in a second.

"You guys don't got any room to talk." He nearly yelled. "I caught you with your hands in the cookie jar. I hope your men told you that there wasn't any Zonagen down there."

Drang turned toward Sturm and shook his head.

"I told you that was a fool's move, brother."

The two mysterious brothers exchanged more words, but by that time, Tanner had already moved over to the Vespula. Immediately, he could see the queen was pleased about something.

"I've been waiting a long time for this." She began. "I hope it's everything you've promised, Tanner Sebester. It would certainly make up for having to be in the same room as the dark ones."

"Hey, you saw my free sample. And that was only the tip of the iceberg."

He soon saw the Vespula queen glance downward at his left arm and snicker.

"Did something happen to your arm? It looks and smells different from the last time we met."

Tanner scratched at the cheap touch up job he had done after Ridley roasted his arm. It was enough to get by, but there wasn't enough skin to cover the exposed muscle and painful burns. It no longer hurt, but it still looked like someone put it through a blender.

"It's fine..." He answered darkly. "And I've got something special for any more interruptions."

The queen merely nodded and said something to one of the generals sitting next to her. The high ranking Vespula snickered and then nodded back. Tanner simply narrowed his eyes and then made his way to the stage. It was time to get this over with. Already there had been a screen and podium ready for some sort of announcement. But a surprise for Tanner involved one of his men peeking his head out from behind the curtains.

"Hey loser, what the hell do you think you're doing? Where's Scratch? I thought I told you to find him."

"That's just it... we can't find him. Sorry boss."

Tanner looked toward the crowd of aliens behind him and shook his head.

"Ok screw it, I'll do the sales pitch. I don't think our buyers were up for technical mumbo jumbo anyway. You just find Scratch."

"Roger boss."

Tanner took out a remote of sorts and flipped it around in his hands like some sort of old western movie. With the click of a button, the lights dimmed over the house and the screen began to play an official file from the Federation concerning the project Blackdie.

"Blackdie, ladies and gentlemen, Vespula and Black Holes... was a Federation project designed to trump the Space Pirate's obsession with the Metroids. But apparently, it wasn't going along fast enough for them, and they tossed it aside, like garbage. Good for you, bad for them."

He hit another switch, and the file began to play out.

"Zonagen is a mix of chemicals and a very special additive that involves microorganisms. These organisms carry a variety of deadly diseases. Some we've seen, some we haven't. But the bottom line is, that when you're infected with Zonagen. There is no cure. Even if there is one that comes up. It'll only work for one patient, and fail for billions of others."

Graphic images of organisms infected by Zonagen began to roll by. One by one. Some at stages so advanced there was no telling where the bed ended and the organism began.

"The strains inside Zonagen are constantly changing. There is no worry that some alien organism you encounter will suddenly form an immunity to it. Because there is no constant side effect. It changes so quickly, our best supercomputers couldn't calculate all the variables."

Now the screen moved onto tests involving protective suits and robotic devices.

"Now, all that is assuming you don't die from the radiation. There used to be a compound known as Phazon in this system. It was highly unstable. Over long periods of time, it could cause madness. Zonagen uses a similar component, except that it only takes one exposure to be fatal. This same radiation, compromises protective suits, and any mechanized defenses."

It was that moment the nobodies in the back began to talk amongst themselves and rubbed their hands together as if it was candy they were seeing. Sturm, Drang, and the Vespula queen just continued to listen.

"Now, you take small amounts of Zonagen, and this radiation can be used for a power source. Operate ships, run cities, or... enhance a bomb. Surely you heard of that. It made Big Blue front headlines. News. The works."

"What exactly are we buying worm?" Sturm shouted. "The Zonagen isn't on the boat. You have nothing to offer us!"

"I'll tell you what I'm selling you. I'm selling you a briefcase with all the information and activation codes necessary to finding and arming Zonagen in Big Blue. Once you get the case, you can go snatch it up, and use it to your heart's desire." He paused. "Don't worry, no one is going to stop you. They won't know what it is until it's too late. The Galactic Federation have a habit of waiting until the last possible moment before telling anyone what's really going on."

Tanner went back to his remote and clicked a combination of buttons. The file stopped playing and the lights returned to brighten the theater. He went to the podium and leaned up against it in a laid back manner.

"Ok, enough of my babble. And the starting bid is..."

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Bloodbath Theater


	13. Chapter 13: Bloodbath Theater

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 13: Bloodbath Theater

When the gavel slammed down, there were two parties in the theater. One very happy party, and the other a very angry party. But, since the angry party could convey so little emotion, it was not apparent right away. It was when a Black Hole soldier approached the stage to collect the briefcase could you really tell who had gotten in the highest bid. Even Tanner was surprised outsiders like them had so much cash, and any sort of doubt in his mind was quickly erased by an account that had popped up in their name. They, to put it lightly, were loaded. Even if the Vespula wanted to sell off their entire empire, they'd never amount to the sum Black Hole was throwing around.

"Who are you guys?" Tanner muttered.

Sturm and Drang didn't feel like offering any explanation. They only laughed. They laughed because Tanner finally understood just whom he was dealing with. And anyone in the theater could have heard the gulp he choked down. And there was the nervous chewing of his lip, you'd think he was trying to eat his lower jaw.

"Anyway, that wraps up this little show. As for everyone else, thank you for coming."

"Tanner Sebester!" The Vespula queen hissed.

Almost immediately, all six of her generals stood up. However, it seemed like Tanner took his a lot more easily than when he sold off the ware bouts of Zonagen to Black Hole. He made a gesture to the queen to come on stage.

"Yeah, I got something to say to you. Let's step behind the curtain. Shall we?"

Almost every Vespula in the theater was prepared to go behind the curtain with her, except she put up her two left arms and stilled them.

"I'll handle this human myself!" She vowed.

She charged after Tanner who had disappeared behind the curtain. Already her wings were buzzing, as she was unable to hold in her anger.

"You will regret all of this. Before, you slaughtered my kind, and now you throw this in my face? My hive will feast upon your remains!"

"Are you done with that touching speech?" Tanner interrupted. "Good, now hear me out before you make a mistake. Whether you got the case or not, I had something planned. I want to join you. Certainly, you know that even if you got Zonagen, you'll want more when that runs out."

"This is true." The queen said after a time.

"Well, I got the men, and I know the location of the facility. All we need is some planetary defense. Surely your swarm can accomplish that."

"Why?"

"Because the Vespula offer something the Galactic Federation doesn't."

The queen simply waited for Tanner to say what that thing was. And he was about to, before they heard the cock and charge of a blaster. Both of them turned to see Samus step out of the shadows, with an ice beam blast ready. Tanner cursed, knowing that the men he had posted at the backstage door were Popsicles by now.

"Do you remember what I told you to do the last time we met?" Samus demanded.

"Don't even flinch." He grinned.

"Aran Samus..." The queen said, with such bitterness you swore she was having a spasm of pain.

"Don't call your drones in here. I'm only after Tanner, but it seems he's one of yours now."

The Vespula queen turned to face Samus and crossed her arms. She had something up her sleeves, that much was certain.

"What will you do Chozo Devil? Would you shoot me? Would you strike me down?"

"It's a very real option I can take." Samus declared.

The queen broke out into a fit of laughter. This involved a low-pitched screech that went up and down in volume. Samus's instinct already told her something was wrong. Now Tanner was smiling, he knew what the queen was thinking.

"Do you know what happens to a hive when they lose their queen?" Tanner began. "They no longer have any leadership."

"Upon my death, devil, my children... from all corners of the galaxy will come here to search out their mother's killer. They will tear apart anything that gets in their way. Even you, who are so immune to death, would not be able to turn the tide of millions of millions of my faithful children."

Tanner shrugged and nodded.

"Try and run... and they'll just spread to other areas in the Federation. They'll just keep coming. A lot of innocent people will die that way." He continued. "Why do you think the Galactic Army never killed the Vespula queen during the war?"

Now Tanner sauntered over to the curtain and drew a section of it back. There was a clear view to the Black Hole section. A clear view to the soldier walking off with the case.

"Besides, the Zonagen isn't here. But that case knows where it is."

Tanner's smile grew wide and cruel.

"I am the least of your worries now."

Samus lowered her arm cannon and gave Tanner a hard stare.

"I'll be back for you." She vowed.

It was simultaneous. By the time Samus had leapt through the curtains into the isle, the Vespula queen had yelled at the top of her lungs and alerted every one of her children in the theater. It was deafening, the sound of weapons getting ready to fire. And there the scene was, with Samus standing in the middle of the isle with Black Hole at her back, and the Vespula in front of her. If they missed, it would be the Black Hole soldiers to be hit. And most of them noticed far too late when the Vespula started to aim and shoot. Samus didn't stand around to see the fireworks, and did a Space Jump to the balcony. The Vespula firing line turned to follow her, and the whole left side of the theater was saturated with blaster fire.

There was no telling how long it lasted, but when it ended, a little over half of Black Hole had been wiped out. Sturm and Drang didn't seem affected, but it was hard to see. For all anyone knew, they could have taken cover. Tanner stood with his mouth dropped open. He could already see the blood red smog shoot from Sturm and Drang's strange masks.

"Oh shhhiiiiittttt..." He muttered, and then began to head toward the backstage exit.

The Vespula had no concern for Black Hole, since they weren't really shooting at them and were frantic in trying to locate where Samus had gone.

"What is the meaning of **this?**" Drang cried. "You miserable curs. All of you will burn!"

It seemed like a flash enveloped the theater, and the change wasn't noticeable right off. But what had happened, was that the number of Black Hole soldiers had doubled, seemingly warped into the theater.

"Those with weapons will die." Sturm proclaimed. "My brother and I will leave with the instructions to find the Zonagen. And when my brother says 'burn', he means burn."

There were two squad leaders. The new arrivals due to whatever Drang had done nodded and turned toward the Vespula. Meanwhile the others began to escort their leaders out of the theater, and brought the case with them. Samus kept her eyes on the case. Whatever Black Hole was, or where they came from, she wasn't about to let them escape with the briefcase in hand. But she couldn't help but watch as the Black Hole soldiers moved in close to the Vespula drones and readied their arm guns. The two generals assigned to watch the others in the theater just barely got out the word to scatter.

It sounded like a bombshell when Black Hole opened fire. It was a combination of weapons. Flamethrowers and shotgun spray everywhere. Samus was almost hypnotized by the chaos that followed in the form of the Vespula counterattack. Several of the generals went headlong into the enemy and speared them with their stingers. Some of them caught fire for a moment and quickly dropped to the ground to put themselves out. The third parties such as the criminals and the intergalactic gangs were running for their lives, not sure what the hell was going on. There were times when Samus thought she was being fired upon, only to find the Black Hole soldiers were spraying the place erratically in hopes of hitting multiple flying Vespula in one shot.

The moment one soldier tried to go for the queen; he was cut down faster than anyone could register. That's when the Vespula queen was hurried out of the theater, and the drones were left to clean up their sudden enemy. There was an explosion. Someone was throwing grenades. Vespula body parts could be seen flying from some blasts. Seats flew around so much you'd think it was raining them. And just when Samus thought it was safe to move, a charred Vespula soldier came crashing into the balcony with her. Its body was badly burnt, but its stinger was still sharp enough to go through most anything that got in its way.

It was chaos at its best. And there wasn't much anyone could have done to slow it down. By the time it could be stopped, there wouldn't be much of anything leftover. Samus kept her eyes peeled for any stray shots. There was enough going around to take any careless fool out. And it was apparent after awhile, what Black Hole lacked in numbers they made up with sheer firepower and their suits kept them going long enough to do their damage. Though all of this, Samus was barely able to make out that Sturm and Drang were leaving. Making a quick escape through all the mess. She took a deep breath, and charged toward the exit they were using, dodging shots all the way.

The exit took her to a hallway where passersby were hanging around, trying to make sense of the loud explosions coming from the theater. Somehow, Black Hole was really moving, and nowhere to be seen. Then a nearby hatch closed after recently being opened, and she knew where they were going. She darted into the stairwell, and could hear the stampede of footsteps heading upwards. Only after following after them would she realize just how quick the group was. The only way she could catch up with them now is with a Speed Booster. The problem with that was the square spiral staircase, with landings and 90 degree turns.

They were to the very top and through the hatch in no time. And when Samus went through, she found herself at the Beluga's topmost deck. The highest deck was open air and dotted with stylish pools and all the comforts one would want while having a day at the beach. Sturm and Drang with their soldiers were none too subtle, cutting their way through the heart of the setup, easily getting in other guest's way. Anyone who spoke up met the barrel of a gun arm quickly shut up and moved out. Eventually they stopped, right in the middle of everything. Samus took the moment to approach them. By the time she had made her way over to the group, the deck was almost deserted, and those who stayed got as far away from Aran as they could.

"Drop the case." Samus started.

She began to try and scan Sturm and Drang as they turned to face her. Strangely, her visor was met with static and gibberish. The next two tries were just the same, for some reason; her suit could not scan Sturm or Drang. She couldn't identify them.

"Humph. Ignore this one. We will be off soon enough." Drang ordered.

The soldiers stood straight and didn't make any motion to attack despite having Samus's arm cannon pointed directly at them.

"This is my last warning. You won't leave with that case."

"You do not have any idea that you are dealing with." Drang told her.

"An even better reason to stop you. Who knows what you're capable of?"

Sturm nodded to the group of soldiers and they all went to start shooting. One was picked off right away by Samus's ice beam while the others began to spray the area with automatic fire. Samus jumped up into the air and fired again as the trails of bullets went around her. When some of the shots did make their mark, it was as she was hitting the ground into a roll, and they made no more contact. One flipped over a table and apparently began to work on something while the others took up defensive positions. The soldier with the case had begun to move away from Samus in a dead sprint.

She gave chase, while taking fire. It apparently didn't matter to her as she charged past the blazing arm guns of the soldiers. Sand began to get kicked up everywhere as the bullets that missed impacted the ground. The soldier with the case began to make his way around a pool while Samus took a more direct route and froze the pool solid with her ice missiles. The explosion worked faster and provided a nice chunk to run across rather than what her beam weapon could do. As she neared the soldier with the case, he suddenly stopped and turned around while heaving the case back across the pool.

A soldier on the other side caught it and began the game of keep away. Samus soon realized they were stalling for time. But time for what? She had begun to run after the case when that question was answered. The soldier who had moved behind the table soon popped back up with a new weapon. A weapon with a large round device attached to the front. More specifically, it was a rocket launcher. It could have easily been mistaken for a rifle of some sort since Black Hole soldiers preferred it under arm instead of over the shoulder. The rocket soldier was busy lining up his sights on Samus before firing.

There was massive recoil involved in the firing of the launcher, as the round head shot off and headed right for Samus. When she jumped up, the rocket altered its course appropriately and headed right up after her. It would have hit, if she didn't use the Morph Ball at just the right time. But the rocket was not so easily gotten rid of, and quickly did an arch in the air to plunge back toward the ground. It landed at her feet and the blast did everything the rocket intended to do. Now Samus was sailing through the air while the soldiers all cackled in a hideous tone. The soldier had moved to put another rocket on when Samus got back on her feet and launched an explosive projectile of her own.

The laughter stopped when the rocket soldier took a missile to the face and went sliding across the sand. There wasn't much left except for the general outline of the suit.

"Resourceful one..." Drang commented.

"Grrrrr! Grenades!" One soldier cried. "Grenades!"

Every soldier in attendance pulled a black sphere and pressed a combination of buttons on the device. Samus rolled backwards into a ball as the spheres began to land all around her and flash multiple colors. When they went off, she found herself pulled toward the blast zones and struggled to stay away from the explosions. The Black Hole soldiers were about to throw another round when the sound of a ship caught their attention. Samus had come out of her Morph Ball and looked up to see a sleek black spaceship arrive. It positioned itself perfectly over the Beluga and held position. It appeared seamless, except for a single red light located somewhere near the front.

It went lower to the ground and the side opened up. A soldier from the ship leaned out and began to call to the other. The case began to move toward the ship, and when Samus tried to move toward it, shots from the soldiers knocked her flat. These rounds were different; they didn't seem to do much damage, but simply packed a punch. Rounds meant to suppress instead of destroy. She could barely sit up without getting knocked to the ground and instead simply rolled onto her side so her arm cannon was free to move around.

As soon as the soldier tossed the case upward toward the ship, she shot a missile before being tossed around again. Now she was being rolled around so much, she could only hear an explosion. It was then the shots from the soldiers stopped, and allowed her to stand. The ship was intact, as well as both the soldiers on the ground. It was the case that had taken the full effect of the missile strike. Now it was in the sand, in fifty different charred smoking pieces. Worthless to everyone.

Drang huffed a blood red cloud and looked toward Samus across the way. The Black Hole soldiers simply stood where they were, letting their gun arms drop to their sides.

"Miserable worms!" Drang cried. "All of you are doomed! You will never see an end to my anger! You will all... die fighting! Destroy this one in orange!"

The Black Hole soldiers exchanged a glance and began to slowly move in on Samus. But something happened, and as soon as they began, they stopped.

"Ha ha ha... Brother, I think your activities in this sector have come to an end."

Drang looked to his brother and turned his head. His motions now expressed confusion and there was a long pause when no smog escaped his metallic tubes.

"Sturm? What is the meaning of this?"

"I heard stories that you had grown weak. I had my suspicions... but now, this is all the proof I need. You have grown terribly incompetent. Even with my forces at your disposal, you couldn't even secure a lowly briefcase."

Now Drang was at a loss for words.

"Heh, to think you are my brother. You are at the beck and call of this human. It doesn't matter how powerful the weapon is; you never lower yourself to the level of your future enemies. And you never ignore a threat, no matter how small."

"No, this is not over!" Drang protested.

"What will you do? Go crawling back to the human? Beg him for the location of his prized possession? Dear brother, you have no more mistakes left to make. You shouldn't have acted so weak around that Tanner creature. He forced you to make a personal appearance. That is unacceptable. Board the ship, before I lose what little patience I have left for you."

The ship pulled in closer and almost landed. It kept just a couple feet off the ground and a ramp rolled out. The soldiers walked away from their rulers and boarded the ship. Drang was reluctant, but eventually did what he was told.

"So, it's over?" Samus asked as Sturm began to walk away.

"Over? Here? Ha ha ha ha. Oh no, I'm afraid my brother and I are just two of many who would enjoy very much crushing this galaxy beneath their feet. It is just that you are fortunate. The main concentration here was not for your sake, but for my brother's. Just to see how far he has fallen from grace. Had we really been interested in taking this area of space, you would not be running around chasing after some human with a weapon beyond his comprehension. You would be involved in more... pressing matters."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Sturm laughed and simply moved closer to the ship.

"I can tell. You are a pest. Pests always throw themselves in front of the weak for some strange reason. It is these pests that give us our name. Black Hole. Did you know? Black Hole is not a name of our choosing. Whatever is in our reach never escapes our grasp. Power means nothing and the mind is everything. Why, I could destroy this planet with a meteor if I wished. But that would not prove a thing. Any fool can destroy a planet."

Samus thought back to Planet Zebes and SR-388.

"No, it is how you defeat others at their own game. Whether it is with your advanced technology or sticks and clubs. That is how you earn the right to be remembered."

"Why are you telling me this? You were simply rumors before this mission."

"And we still are!" Sturm declared, taking one step onto the ramp. "You know nothing more than what I've told you. Ha. Those soldiers in the theater? Pawns. Pawns we can use and throw away at will! Whatever your puny minds could possibly come up with to describe us, will always be further and further from the truth." There was a pause. "I tell you this because in the end... Fear is all you have left."

Sturm boarded the ship, and it took off into the horizon. Most likely to meet up with their means of reaching the planet. Samus walked over to the railing of the top deck and watched them disappear. She had begun to wonder just what exactly they were and stopped.

"Humph. Just one more to add to the list."

Now, all she had to face now was Tanner and the Vespula.

* * *

Tanner was in his room along with the rest of the Sand Trap crew. Or... who had survived over the past week. They were minus Chester, Boris, and almost Scratch, who was borderline hypothermia and wrapped up in blankets while he thawed. The room was not extremely large, enough to hold the 15 or so people, but not big enough to be comfortable. They stood around Tanner while he was working at a laptop. It was payday. Or so they thought, because when Tanner opened up the account Black Hole had transferred all the money to. He found a startling withdraw. For awhile, he was dumbstruck and his men didn't realize it at the time. They only really noticed Tanner when he began to turn beat red and hopped up off the couch.

"That bitch! That lousy goddamn Samus Aran! Her... she did this... I don't know how... but I'm going to kill her!"

"What... what... are you talking about?" Scratch choked out.

"It's gone! All the money is gone! The only reason why they'd do that is if they somehow didn't get their cargo... Oh holy #$%. She is going to die!"

All of the Sand Trap personnel exchanged a nervous glance. No one had gone up against Samus Aran and lived to talk about it.

"Hey Seb... why don't you calm down? The money isn't important..."

"Isn't important?" Tanner yelled. "The reason why I did all of this shit is so I could repay all those years the Federation sucked out of you guys! Rotting away on Sand Trap! For what little I could do, this was going to be my way of making it up to you..."

"But Tanner, are you kidding? Running around with Zonagen, and forcing the Federation to hire Samus of all bounty hunters to come after us... That's it right there! It's like we're in the Galactic Army again! Hell! We're famous. They got Samus after us! Samus!"

The whole room agreed. But Tanner had already set his mind to what he was going to do.

"Scratch, you still got that junk in your room?"

Scratch did a double take.

"Sebester... no man. Come on. The Zonagen Cannon? The radiation after each shot would fry you."

Tanner shook his head.

"No, I took care of that."

He took a deep breath. Everyone in the room could see how pissed off Tanner was. There was no way they would be able to talk him out of it. Trying to stop him would be a bad idea, because he could probably take all of them out and still have enough energy to duke it out with a Space Pirate.

"You guys do one thing for me. Search the ship. Find Samus; tell her I'll be waiting in the engine room. That's my last order. Then you get your asses down as low as you can. Stay away from the Federation Police." He was grinding his teeth. "God dammit, it's time to end this crap."

With that, Tanner charged out of the room. They all glanced at each other. There was nothing they could do... other than to follow his instructions.

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Means to an End


	14. Finale: Means to an End

-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 14: Means to an End

The Beluga's engine room was a suffocating place. It was located in the tail section, and it's four engines easily turned the three-story area into a sauna. There wasn't any air-conditioning for those who ventured inside, because computers operated all of Beluga's most important systems. The only time it needed to see organic hands was when it needed repair. Air-conditioning to the engine room was cut due to the massive power demanded to support the services geared toward the passengers. In other words, it was abandoned, but it was still kept under a watchful eye by the security room.

All Samus had to do to find it was following the maps posted in the areas dedicated to the crew. Still, she was on her guard. Tanner's men had been unusually helpful in pointing out his location. This was probably the end of the line. He was prepared to stop running, and frankly, Samus was prepared to stop chasing. The mission had wound up taking her to locations she would have rather stayed away from, such as the highly populated resort world Big Blue. Now it had all come down to a showdown in the engine room.

Samus readied her arm cannon and stepped through the hatch into mid section of the engine room. It was a wide place and poorly lit. But she couldn't be sure whether it was originally like that, or something Tanner had done when he arrived. There were two booming engines to her left and right, one on the lower floor, and one on the upper floor. Stairs were located on the furthest ends of the mid-section. All in-between these staircases were transformers, computers, and devices designed to maintain a constant output reasonable to the four-engine capacity.

Now she came to the railing of the mid section and looked down to the lower area of the engine room. It was nearly pitch black, except for the glowing monitors of some consoles. When she looked up, all she could see was the railing of the upper section, and the wide void between the top two engines. No sign of Tanner anywhere.

"It's a sad time when the galaxy's greatest warrior is someone who can be bought and the galaxy's greatest threat is a bunch of lowlife aliens with too much time on their hands."

She spun around to look around the computers and heavy machinery on the mid level. Unfortunately, it seemed like Tanner's voice came from everywhere.

"I think you'll be pleased to learn that the money from our auction was taken back."

"Then why are you keeping this up? What would you do with it anyway? It would be worthless once the Federation collapsed. Why side with the Vespula? Still looking for a payoff?"

Tanner grunted from somewhere above and Samus quickly pointed her arm cannon upwards. It sounded like he was lugging something very heavy around.

"My intention wasn't to get rich... my intention was to crush the Federation on two fronts. Black Hole and the Vespula. You see I was going to teach those bastards at HQ the value of other's life. I thought getting money would be to add insult to injury."

Samus was now slowly moving toward one of the access stairs to head upwards.

"They tried to bury us. They tried to treat us like weapons. They wanted us to sit on our asses until they felt like activating us. I am not a weapon! My men, my friends... they are not weapons! We have needs! A need for respect!"

There was a loud clank as something heavy hit the floor. Samus was now making her way up the stairs, still moving slowly, and checking every corner.

"But you Samus... you're a weapon." Tanner coughed. "You're the Chozo's most perfect weapon. And now, since your masters are all dead and gone. You start renting your services out to the Federation."

"Fighting the Space Pirates is no cheap venture. But I wouldn't expect you to understand." Samus responded.

Now Samus was on the upper level. But massive pipes sticking out of the top right engine obscured her view. She was forced to creep around them in order to find a way to get closer to Tanner's voice.

"Ha! People like you are bottom of the barrel. When the Galactic Army was downsized, a lot of guys I knew turned into mercenaries. Bottom feeders. You can't get respect like that. But I soon learned you couldn't get respect running an honest operation either."

Tanner's voice was very clear. She was getting close...

"The Vespula... they know the meaning of respect. They remember all their heroes. Those who gave their lives for the greater good of their queen. I'd rather die amongst a bunch of aliens than those scum suckers who think they reward loyalty by ignoring us. The army was different. You did your job, and you were saluted."

"A constant need for gratification... I don't think you were ready for an operation like Sand Trap." Samus said.

"Shut the hell up! If they think they can throw away over twenty dedicated people who want to amount to something... what do you think they will move onto next? No guesses? How about colonies? I heard the one you came from got scrapped. What was it? K2-L?"

Samus jumped out from behind a corner and pointed her arm cannon in the direction of Tanner's voice. There he was, in the middle of a row of consoles. He was wearing a suit now. A black suit that covered every inch of his body. A helmet with a reflective visor hid his face. It covered every inch of his head and made him look faceless. However, that was the least of Samus's concern. There was something in his hands. Something that he held out in front of him with both hands grasping handles on top. Her pause prompted him to explain.

"It's the Zonagen Cannon. It was originally designed to be slapped to the wings of spaceships. However, we couldn't really test it in Sand Trap."

The Zonagen Cannon looked alive for the most part. The foot long barrel was slowly turning, and was unusually wide. The first handle was found where the barrel connected to the center section, and the center section had slits of exhaust ports that constantly opened and closed. Where the center section met the back was where the second handle and trigger could be found. Two large metal cylinders made up the rear of the weapon, and where Tanner balanced it up against his hip. Due to the sheer size of it, raising the weapon above waist height was impossible. Her scan indicated dangerous radiation levels. She could only begin to imagine what levels would be like if he fired it off.

"You see..." He coughed again. "It kept punching holes through the walls of the installation."

Samus dove to the side as Tanner shifted it towards her and pulled the trigger. A black beam came rocketing out of the front and reached across the engine room like a laser. Whatever the Zonagen Beam touched was cut through, nothing could stop it. It was like a surgical tool, and didn't effect areas that weren't in the line of fire. The sound it made was absolutely hideous, and could have probably been compared to nails on a chalkboard. The radiation levels in the engine room spiked, and the highest readings were found at the source. Tanner and his cannon.

The normal sounds of the engine room seemed like silence when Tanner ceased firing. Samus got to her feet and could hear the cannon whine in readying another discharge. She began to sprint towards the stairs. There was nothing she could hide behind when the cannon cut through everything. All Tanner had to do was simply turn, and the cannon did the rest, punching through any sources of cover. The top level was now in ruin, and Samus almost didn't dive down the stairs fast enough before the cannon blasted it.

He could hear her dive down the stairs and began to shuffle in her direction. His slow, heavy footsteps echoed throughout the entire room as he made his way to the stairs to chase after her. Samus thought about standing her ground, but soon realized Tanner could probably fire through the floor and hit her, so she went down the stairs again to the darkened lower levels. It was there she heard Tanner make his way to the mid level and open fire to destroy everything on the mid level. Warning sirens and emergency announcements began to ring out as the four engines were losing their regulators.

"Attention. Authorized emergency shutdown of central engine systems required. System Failure at sections A203, A204, A205, A206..." An electronic voice rang out.

The list went on as Tanner soon began to shuffle down the stairs to the lowest level. And that's when the Zonagen Cannon really lit up. In the darkness the purple exhaust made the cannon look like it had running lights, and the two cylinders were outlined with a green light that bled through the seams of their construction. Samus aimed carefully, for as soon as she fired, Tanner would know exactly where she was. He was stumbling around in the dark, trying to use the light from his cannon to see where he was walking. Finally Samus took her shot, and hit him dead on with an Ice Beam.

But the beam hardly lasted and was only successful in knocking Tanner back a couple of steps. The heat and radiation generated by the cannon was immense, and melted the ice almost instantly. Now he retaliated, and fired the cannon off towards her direction. Samus was in her Morph Ball form, rolling in the opposite direction of the beam. Her suit's systems flashed a warning as the Zonagen beam came in close proximity. It was enough to singe a part of her suit when she came out of it.

That encounter began to make her think. Radiation like that, Tanner's suit could only be lessening the pain, instead of stopping it outright.

"You're killing yourself." Samus realized.

The noise generated by the cannon eliminated any way of pinpointing Samus by her voice. Tanner could only yell back in a fury.

"I'd rather die with a weapon in my hand than waste away in a prison and sit through years of courtroom deliberation to decide stuff everyone knows I already did!"

Tanner fired again in the opposite direction of Samus. She peered around to the corner to see his back exposed and moved out to let loose a volley of missiles. The Zonagen Cannon's radiation interfered with some of the missiles tracking, and they went soaring off into the wall or a section of the engine room. A couple landed at Tanner's feet and almost knocked him to the floor. As slow as he was, the Cannon he was carrying nearly anchored him to the ground.

"As much as you hate the way the Federation run things. It's still the best system we have to depend on."

"That's why I wanted the Vespula and Black Hole to steamroll this crap heap! I wanted to show everyone just how pitiful the Space Pirates really are! You wanna see hostile alien species? Well I got all of them right here!"

Tanner spun around, out of breath, and fired again. Samus leapt over the beam and darted into another shadow. If this kept up, he'd be dead before Samus could lay a finger on him.

"You underestimate them. They're more resourceful than you'll ever know. And bringing the Federation more problems aren't going to make them go away."

"At least it would ruin you! You son of a bitch! The Federation couldn't come crawling to you to handle everything that ever happened. They've become spineless dogs! I wanted you to die!"

There was a new mechanical whirr that escaped the Zonagen Cannon. Samus couldn't see from her spot, but it didn't sound good. Tanner was laughing the best he could while sputtering coughs interrupting the whole way. Samus could see a beam heading her way, and she ducked... only to find another beam that was lower, threatening to cut her in half. She jumped up and was forced to dive to the ground as another beam swept by in the same pattern as the last two. It was a close call. She moved out from behind a pile of scrap to see Tanner had activated some function on the cannon. There was a device breaking the beam off into three separate directions. But it didn't last, and eventually the Zonagen beam destroyed the attachment.

Among the chaos of the engine room and the rampaging Tanner, Samus began to get a familiar feeling. Her muscles tensed up, her pulse began to pound even faster than before. It wasn't Tanner creating this effect. No, she could already see him tearing up everything in his proximity with the Zonagen Cannon. This was something else. She looked to see the balcony above and made out two slanted yellow eyes.

"No. It has to be the radiation..." She muttered.

But even looking away from the eyes didn't make the disappear. She followed the angle of the eyes to see them gazing right at Tanner as he shuffled his way around the lower section of the engine room. Then, as he got closest to the balcony...

"Tanner! Get away from there! Move!" Samus yelled.

"Screw you!" He barked.

Tanner spun around and was ready to empty a full blast right into Samus's chest cavity. He could see her, standing slightly in the light of a fire created by something he blew to hell with the Zonagen Cannon. But he could feel a plink as something dropped down onto his helmet. Now it was running down the front of his visor. It was saliva. And judging by the steam it gave off as it slid onto his suit. It was hot saliva. He forgot about pulling the trigger and looked upwards to the mid level railing above...

"Oh no."

Samus watched as a long spindly tail dropped down from above and wrapped around Tanner. It tightened so fast it caused him to drop the Zonagen Cannon and soon flung him into the air. A claw lashed out and caught him on the way up. He was trying to escape, but a quick squeeze by the claw holding him let him know it was futile. Another claw shot out and tore off Tanner's helmet. Then Ridley's head emerged from the darkness, glaring at the human in his hand viciously.

"Pitiful?" Ridley hissed, revealing every single one of his jagged, ruthless teeth.

Tanner was too choked up to talk. This couldn't have been happening. But the crack of his bones being crushed under Ridley's grip told him otherwise. Samus moved out from behind the wreckage of a transformer and watched helplessly as Ridley moved wrung Tanner like a wet rag. It was a disgusting sound and the bloodcurdling cry of pain died off before it could finish. Soon Ridley dropped Tanner to the ground, next to the Zonagen Cannon. Throughout the whole scene, Samus could almost hear Phantoon rolling over in his grave with insane laughter.

"You should have killed him when you had the chance." Ridley stated while gazing down as his victim. "Now he has all the time in the world to bleed out. A fitting, slow death."

"Ridley! Damn you!" Samus yelled, absolutely furious.

Ridley merely brought his teeth into view again. It looked like some twisted snarl, but Samus could tell it was the best grin Ridley could form with his long snout. Emergency lights flickered on and Samus could see Ridley's newest incarnation. Most of his body was as black as charcoal, but there were still a few sections still blue from what the X Parasites had done to his body. His tail also seemed to be longer, and the spade-shaped tip was sharper than ever. Aside from looks, Samus's scan was also bringing up two different temperature values for Ridley. One hot, one cold.

"The B.S.L. taught me a number of things." Ridley interrupted. "It is not always wise to charge in without evaluating the situation. I figured it easier for you to deal with the black-clad outsiders and the Vespula. Not to mention Phantoon, that treacherous ghost. That way, we wouldn't run into unforeseen problems, like that with the X Parasites. And so I was right."

"So you're after the Zonagen..."

"The plan had always been to hijack the ship carrying it of the planet... It was our forte. We wouldn't have to wade through the countless other creatures like you did. And you interfered, forcing my appearance... Always getting in the way..." Ridley seethed, causing saliva to fly out of his mouth.

The two rivals paused in a stare, and then pounced upon one another. Ridley dove head first down towards Samus while she fired her ice beam. The space dragon took the blast to the face but shook it off, keeping his claws forward to tear Samus apart if he grasped her. She jumped over him as he charged by, but was soon knocked flat by his long tail. It began to wrap around her, but soon lost grip when she used the Morph Ball to slip through. The darkness wouldn't help her now; Ridley had adapted to the dark caverns of Norfair and could see fine without the presence of light. When he turned around, he could spot her in the corners of the lower level, coming out of the ball form.

Samus began to detect Ridley's body temperature plunge. She couldn't make sense of it since the space dragon had adapted to the depths of Norfair. Normally, Ridley liked temperatures that would melt most creatures. Now he registered with something that was almost below freezing. It would all make sense soon enough as she tried to fire a missile at him. He cocked his head back and opened his mouth to spew forth a wave of sub-zero mist. It froze the missile on its way to its target, and when it did make contact with Ridley's body it merely shattered on impact.

Ridley let out a roar and then spat something across the room. Samus dove away as it slammed into the wall and began to spread ice in all directions. Her suit flashed a desperate warning. However compatible her suit was with the ice beam, her half-Metroid body still couldn't take a direct blast without taking serious damage.

"So... that's what getting infected in sub-zero containment does to you..." Samus muttered.

When the space dragon couldn't get a clear shot of Samus, he charged and tried to use the piles of scrap as something to pin her with. She kept on the move, and fired missiles in bursts. She detected his temperature rise, and he proceeded to shoot her missiles down with fireballs. He leapt forward and tore blindly at Samus with his claws. The move was too reckless to do any good, and she took a perfect shot at his head with a charged ice beam. The pain caused Ridley to spin around and brought his tail sweeping through the air like an ax.

Ridley cocked his crooked neck to peer over his shoulder. He watched as his tail swung back and forth, attempting to sever a limb or something from the hunter's body. She ducked and hopped and rolled and did anything to stay out of his tail's way. When she made a jump to avoid a low sweep, he spun around and lunged forward. He grabbed her arm with the cannon and her helmet and proceeded to slam her up against the wall. Samus was pinned, and that's when Ridley began to squeeze. To keep her failing legs to the wall, he froze them with his arctic breath.

There wasn't much Samus could do except move her free hand. She fired off her arm cannon in a couple attempts to shake Ridley's claw free, but it was useless. Her body began to shiver as he was breathing in her face with the cold mist. His eyes were locked on her helmet, ready to see it collapse and crush her skull. She could hear the groan of her suit under Ridley's grasp and could only think of one thing. Slowly, she put her hand on Ridley's claw and closed her eyes.

For a second, Ridley thought she was submitting and began to apply more pressure, not wanting to waste the chance. Then he realized he couldn't, in fact, he was losing his grip on her. His eyes began to blur and the ice around Samus's legs had begun to melt. It was too late when he realized he was getting weaker, and that Samus was draining his energy. He let out a terrible roar and wrenched his claws free. But there was Samus still clinging to his claw, refusing to let go. He tried to thrash about to throw her free of his body, but he was too weak.

The bounty hunter sucking Ridley's energy away opened her eyes, desperately trying to control her Metroid instincts. She watched as Ridley made a slight hesitation, and then began to bite at his arm. Soon he brought his tail into the task, and before long, he cut off his right claw and leapt back away from Samus. There was no way he was going to win a fight now, especially with Samus getting back on her feet.

"You..." Ridley howled clutching his wounded arm, and then fled.

Samus fought to regain control of her senses and eventually let go of Ridley's severed claw. She listened intently to see if the space dragon had really left, and then turned toward Tanner. He was on his back in the middle of the lower section of the engine room, with the Zonagen Cannon next to him.

"God damn..." Tanner moaned. "To be done in by a Space Pirate... I'll never forgive myself..."

He looked toward Samus as she scanned him for his injuries. Ridley had done a number on his entire body. There was no way he'd pull through.

"You're a lot of trouble Tanner." Samus said while kneeling down. "Two planets? Three alien species? I bet you were something in the Galactic Army. But now, it's over. Where is the Zonagen?"

"Heh, did I put on that good of a show? It's all still at the Dolphinhead Warehouse." He paused to resist a spasm of pain. "I just wanted... respect... Some sort of... recognition."

"You had respect, until you decided to betray everything and everyone you've ever known."

For once, there was regret in Tanner's eyes.

"Victoria... oh my god... I hope... at least she'll forgive me..."

"I don't think she can make that choice anymore. You left her to the mercy of Phantoon."

"What?" Tanner choked out. "You're one cold fish to tell me that. While I'm dying'."

"Just want to make you aware of what you've done. Because in the end, you have to deal with it."

"What I've done? Yeah... what I've done..."

Tanner nodded off and Samus stood up. She looked at his body one last time and left the engine room.

* * *

General Graves sat in the Commander's Room of the Reverov. It was made with a great deal of wood, including the walls and floor. Rare nowadays, but not so much during the time of the Galactic Army. Medals and pictures and old ceremonial weapons could be found covering every inch of the walls. The desk in the center was mostly bare except for a tiny model of the Reverov and his hat. Then there was the monitor he was looking at.

He was reading over the details the Federation Police collected while investigating the occurrences on the Beluga. Samus was half the report, having experienced all of it first hand. Ridley was nowhere to be found after the Beluga docked and the ship was searched from head to toe. The Vespula were evicted from Federation space, and restricted from entering again after everyone learned of their involvement. Then he reached the end. The part about Tanner. Deceased.

"Is that a good read?"

Graves looked up to see Samus in the doorway, arm cannon over her shoulder. He stood up and put on his hat.

"Humph. I thought he'd be dead by the end of this. And you can still boast 100 completion."

"If you read further, you'll see Ridley carried out the sentence. Not me."

"It hardly matters. The Federation just wants to put this behind us as soon as possible."

"I imagine. What do you plan to do with the Zonagen?"

"We're moving it to a secure location where we can further improve upon Sand Trap's work. As for the installation. We're closing it down. For good."

Samus didn't say anything. Adam taught her a long time ago. When something like "secure location" came up in a conversation, that was code for a warehouse where it would never be found again. It was easy to see the Federation never cared about Zonagen until it was threatened to be dumped the hands of the enemy. A project scrapped a long time ago.

"So, are you sure about this?" Graves began. "You want your payment to go toward a new ship?"

"That's all I need right now. Don't forget Adam either. This mission is complete."

Graves nodded and watched as Samus turned around to leave. But she didn't, not right away. Instead she looked over her shoulder.

"I have one question. How many other installations like Sand Trap do you have in the galaxy?"

"Sand Trap was the last of it's kind." Graves answered quickly.

"Uh huh." Samus said, hardly convinced.

With that the bounty hunter was gone. Graves went back to his desk and started a private transmission.

"This is Graves. I want a thorough psychological check for all personnel running A Class science installations. Yes. Yes. Even the Metroid Farms. Especially the Metroid Farms..."

-The End

--Thanks for Reading

---Author's Note:

Well, that's Blackdie in a nutshell. I hope I managed to make an a-typical Metroid Story without straying too far from the path. Since there's so much unknown about the stuff after Fusion, I guess I had to make one. But anyway, thanks again to all those readers who went from chapter 1 - 14. This would have to be my longest story to date. So, I can only hope you enjoyed it as much I did writing it.


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